Sex-Specific Cut-Offs of Seven Adiposity Indicators and Their Performance in Predicting Metabolic Syndrome in Arab Adults

Abstract

This study aimed to assess several indicators of adiposity and their effectiveness in predicting metabolic syndrome (MetS) and identify their cut-off values among general Saudi adults. Consequently, 833 participants (49% male and 51% female) aged 42.2 ± 11.9 years (408 MetS and 425 as controls) were enrolled into this cross-sectional study. Information on demographics, anthropometrics and biochemical results was retrieved from a registry. MetS was defined according to the National Cholesterol Education Program’s (NCEP III) criteria. Overall, the lipid accumulation product (LAP) and waist–TG index (WTI) had the highest discriminatory ability for MetS (area under the curve (AUC): 0.857 and 0.831), respectively, followed by the visceral adiposity index (VAI) and dysfunctional adiposity index (DAI) (AUC: 0.819 and 0.804), respectively. Based on gender, the LAP and WTI were the best indicators for discriminating MetS and presented the highest Youden index values, with cut-off values of 49.8 (sensitivity 68.5%, specificity 82.4%), and 8.7 (sensitivity 70.7%, specificity 81.9%), respectively, in females and 46.2 (sensitivity 85.6%, specificity 76.3%) and 8.9 (sensitivity 73.9%, specificity 84.8%), respectively, in males. The LAP and WTI performed well in both genders with a superior ability to identify MetS in males and could be used to predict MetS in Saudi adults.