Background US Hispanics/Latinos have a high prevalence of obesity and related comorbidities. Few studies have investigated whether different obesity measures have differential relationships with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in US Hispanics/Latinos.
Methods and Results We examined associations of six obesity measures (body mass index [BMI], fat mass index, and body fat percent, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio [WHR], and waist-to-height ratio) with CVD risk factors among 9835 women and 6580 men from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, a population-based cohort of Hispanics/Latinos aged 18-74 years from four US cities. All obesity measures were associated with increased prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia, as well as unfavorable levels of blood pressure, lipids, and glucose and insulin measures; magnitudes of associations with CVD risk factors were similar for each obesity measure. In multivariable-adjusted analyses, compared with those of normal weight and WHR, overweight/obese individuals with abnormal WHR had increased prevalence ratios (PRs) for hypertension (women, 2.40 [95% CI 1.87, 3.07]; men, 2.52 [1.87, 3.40]), diabetes (women, 6.70 [3.91, 11.48]; men, 3.91 [2.22, 6.88]), and dyslipidemia (women, 2.10 [1.83, 2.41]; men, 2.22 [1.89, 2.61]). In the normal-weight group, abnormal WHR was also significantly associated with increased PRs of all three CVD risk factors, particularly of diabetes (women, 3.99 [2.23, 7.14]; men, 3.04 [1.63, 5.66]).
Conclusions
Overall and central obesity measures were associated with CVD risk factors to a similar degree in US Hispanics/Latinos. However, in normal-weight individuals, WHR was useful in identifying people at increased risk for hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia.