Adiposity measures as indicators of metabolic risk factors in adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the relation between adiposity assessment methods (percentage body fat (%BF), BMI, and waist circumference (WC)) and individual metabolic risk factors (f-insulin, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides) and a combined measure of metabolic risk.


METHODS
Crosssectional study of 300 males (BMI 20.8 +/- 3.0 kg/m(2)) and females (BMI 21.3 +/- 2.9 kg/m(2)) 17 years of age. F-insulin and components of the metabolic syndrome defined by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) were used as metabolic risk indicators, with samples stratified into BMI, %BF, and WC groups, respectively. Diagnostic accuracy was expressed as the area under the ROC curve (AUC).


RESULTS
In males, diagnostic accuracy for HDL and f-insulin was poor to fair for BMI (AUC 0.70, p = 0.001; 0.60, p = 0.22), WC (0.68, p = 0.003; 0.63, p = 0.11), and %BF (0.65, p = 0.009; 0.66, p = 0.04). The diagnostic accuracy for triglycerides was greater for all three measures (BMI 0.92, WC 0.95, %BF 0.87; all p < 0.001). For females, neither test performed better than chance for f-insulin and HDL, and only %BF performed better than chance for triglycerides (0.65, p = 0.08). All three measures exhibited higher accuracy for presence of > or =2 metabolic risk factors (AUCs 0.76-0.91, p < 0.001) in both sexes.


CONCLUSIONS
%BF was not superior to BMI and WC for detecting metabolic risk in the general adolescent population.
Neovius
Martin
M
Department of Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. martin.neovius@ki.se
Rossner
Sophia M
SM
Vågstrand
Karin
K
von Hausswolff-Juhlin
Yvonne Linné
YL
Hoffstedt
Johan
J
Ekelund
Ulf
U
D000293:Adolescent; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D001823:Body Composition; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL / Q000097:blood; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015995:Prevalence; D012372:ROC Curve; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood; D055105:Waist Circumference
D001786:Blood Glucose; D008076:Cholesterol, HDL; D007328:Insulin; D014280:Triglycerides