Association of anthropometric indicators to evaluate nutritional status and cardiometabolic risk in Mexican teenagers

Introduction: anthropometric indicators (AIs) such as waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI), waist/hip index (WHpI), waist/height index (WHtI) and body fat percentage (BFP) are useful tools for the diagnosis of nutritional status (NS) in adolescents. Each of these parameters has advantages and disadvantages. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the association of these AIs (WC, BMI, WHpI, WHtI, and BFP) to evaluate nutritional status and estimate the cardiometabolic risk (CMR) in Mexican adolescents. Material and method: in a cross-sectional descriptive study, the NS was analyzed through various AIs and CMR with the WHtI criteria. Nine hundred and seventeen adolescents between 15 and 17 years old participated in the study, of whom 488 (52.9%) were female and 429 (47.1%) male, all students of middle school in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico. Results and conclusion: women presented a higher prevalence of obesity according to most indicators. The WHtI was the parameter that detected the highest prevalence of obesity (31%), correlating with the BMI and the BFP. Moreover, there was evidence of a significant relation between NS (assessed by all the anthropometric indicators) and CMR. The WHtI could be considered as an adequate tool for the diagnosis of obesity associated with CMR in adolescents.