title: Receiver-operating characteristic analyses of body mass index, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio for obesity: Screening in young adults in central south of China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent data suggest that current obesity diagnostic criterion based on body mass index (BMI) above 30 in Caucasians may not be appropriate for Asian populations. Our aim was to identify the usefulness of BMI, waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) in screening for obesity in an Asian population.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional sample of 1109 males and 879 females aged 20-45-yr were recruited. Height, weight, WC, hip circumference and percentage body fat (PBF) were measured in all subjects. Then receiver-operating characteristic analyses were used to evaluate the performances of the three anthropometric indices.
  
  
  RESULTS
  BMI, WC and WHR showed strong positive correlation with PBF (r=0.47-0.75) in both males and females within both age groups. True-positive rates ranged from 82.4% to 94.1% and 68.8% to 86.3% in males and females, respectively. True-negative rates ranged from 64.1% to 84.7% and from 56.9% to 79.0%, respectively. The areas under the curves (AUCs) for WC and BMI were high (0.76-0.92) in both sexes and divided age groups (20-30-yr and 31-45-yr), and those for WHR were a little lower (0.74-0.88).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BMI and WC are two important predictors for obesity in Chinese, and WHR is an alternative.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular and Statistical Genetics and the Key Laboratory of Protein Chemistry and Developmental Biology of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan 410081, PR China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jin-Hai
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Shu-Feng
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.forename: Xiang-Ding
authors.initials: XD
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Man-Yuan
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wei-Xian
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Jian
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Li-Jun
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Fei-Yan
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: Yan-Jun
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yan-Bo
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Su-Mei
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Yan-Fang
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Jing-Jing
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Yuan-Neng
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xue-Zhen
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Papasian
authors.forename: Hong-Wen
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Deng
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism; D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D044466:Asian People; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012737:Sex Factors; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio