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New Waist Circumference Cut‐offs for African Americans (AA) According to the Clustering of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) Risk Factors, NHANES 1999–2006
Author(s) -
Udahogora Margaret,
Jackson Robert
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.252.8
Subject(s) - waist , circumference , medicine , receiver operating characteristic , cutoff , youden's j statistic , metabolic syndrome , body mass index , obesity , demography , mathematics , physics , geometry , quantum mechanics , sociology
Although central obesity is highly associated with MetS criteria, reliable cutoff values for waist circumference (WC) 1 independent of BMI 2 are still lacking among African Americans. We determined the gender specific cut‐off values of WC, which optimally predict the clustering of two or more MetS risk factors in AA. The study consisted of 2136 females and 1908 males (NHANES 3 ‐ 1999–2006). The MetS components were defined according to the NCEP/ATPIII 4 criteria. The WC values were tested using receiver operating characteristics analysis (ROC) 5. The Youden Index and the minimum distance values from the upper left corner of the ROC curve were calculated to determine the WC thresholds with optimal sensitivity and specificity. The mean age of subjects was 46 years ranging between 20–85 years with a BMI of 29.9 ± 7.4, in the range of 15.8–67.3 kg/m 2 , and a WC of 98.5 ± 16.9, in the range of 60.4–163.1cm. The WC cut‐off values were 94.7 cm with 76% sensitivity and 67% specificity for males and 97.6 cm with 70% sensitivity and 61% specificity for females. For the early detection and management of the MetS in AA, the WC of 95 cm for males and 98 cm for females are suggested as appropriate cut‐off values.