Relationship between waist‐height index and body adiposity index with cardiovascular risk factors in children and adolescents with obesity (641.5)

Objective. To evaluate the association of waist‐height index (WHI) and the body adiposity index (BAI) with cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) in children and adolescents with obesity. Methods. Cross‐sectional study in 40 subjects with obesity (BMI 蠅 2.0 SD). Body weight, height, waist (WC) and hip circumference (HC), blood pressure, serum glucose and insulin (HOMA), total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerideswere measured. WHI (WC/ height) and BAI (HC/height 1.5 ‐18) were calculated. Body composition was assessed by DEXA. Simple correlation between CVRF and anthropometric measures were performed. Mean values of biochemical and anthropometric variables were compared between subjects with WHI> vs <0.6 with the Student t test. The protocol was approved by the Hospital Ethics Committee. Results. Mean age 11.8 ± 1.8 years. Mean values of BMI (2.95 ± 0.8 SD), WHI (0.63 ± 0.07) and BAI (35.8 ± 5.7%). The WHI showed positive and better correlation than BAI with the percentage of body fat by DEXA (r = 0.81 vs 0.75; P <0.001) and abdominal fat (r = 0.79 vs 0.54; P <0.001). Mean values of insulin, HOMA, weight, WC, HC and BMI were higher in subjects with WHI> 0.6 (p <0.05); whereas HDL was borderline (p = 0.06).Conclusions. In children and adolescents with obesity the WHI is better than the BAI to identify subjects with abdominal adiposity and CVRF; the WHI cutoff of 0.6 is suitable to identify subjects with cardiovascular risk.