Waist circumference and related anthropometric indices are associated with metabolic traits in severely obese subjects

Increased waist circumference (WC) and related anthropometric indices have been shown to be, independently of body weight and body mass index (BMI), associated with adverse metabolic traits in many populations. It is unknown, however, whether WC also predicts adverse metabolic traits in severely obese subjects displaying a BMI greater than 35 kg/m2. To address this question, we analyzed a dataset including 838 severely obese patients (597 women, BMI 44.6 ± 6.2 kg/m2; 241 men, BMI 44.3 ± 5.7 kg/m2). Body weight, height, WC, hip circumference, and blood pressure were measured in all subjects along with the following metabolic blood markers: fasting glucose, insulin, glycolized hemoglobin levels, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low- and high-density cholesterol, and uric acid. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that WC as well as related anthropometric indices, in particular those accounting for subjects' height, were associated with many metabolic variables independently of body weight and BMI. In general, height-adjusted WC indices were more closely associated with metabolic traits in women than in men. Collectively, our findings suggest that body fat distribution also plays an important role in determining metabolic traits in severely obese subjects and that WC represents a valuable marker of abdominal/visceral obesity in this population.