title: Anthropometric correlates of total body fat, abdominal adiposity, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in a biracial sample of men and women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate associations between anthropometric measurements and total body fat, abdominal adipose tissue, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in a large biracial sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study is limited to cross-sectional analyses of data from participants attending a baseline visit between January 26, 1996, and February 1, 2011. The sample included 2037 individuals aged 18 to 69 years: 488 African American women (24%), 686 white women (34%), 196 African American men (9%), and 667 white men (33%). Anthropometry included weight; hip circumference; waist circumference; waist-hip, waist-height, and weight-height ratios; body adiposity index; and body mass index. Body fat and percentage of fat were measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, and abdominal visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue were measured by computed tomography. Bivariate correlations, logistic regression models, and receiver operator characteristic curves were used, and analyses were stratified by sex and race.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In each sex-by-race group, all anthropometric measures were highly correlated with percentage of fat, fat mass, and subcutaneous adipose tissue and moderately correlated with visceral adipose tissue, with the exception of the waist-hip ratio. The odds of having an elevated cardiometabolic risk were increased more than 2-fold per SD increase for most anthropometric variables, and the areas under the curve for each anthropometric measure were significantly greater than 0.5.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Several common anthropometric measures were moderately to highly correlated with total body fat, abdominal fat, and cardiovascular disease risk factors in a biracial sample of women and men. This comprehensive analysis provides evidence of the linkage between simple anthropometric measurements and the purported pathways between adiposity and health.
authors.affiliation: Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70808-4124, USA.
authors.forename: Tiago V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Barreira
authors.forename: Amanda E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Staiano
authors.forename: Deirdre M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Harrington
authors.forename: Steven B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Heymsfield
authors.forename: Steven R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bouchard
authors.forename: Peter T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Katzmarzyk
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000886:Anthropometry; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology*; D015984:Causality; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D050152:Intra-Abdominal Fat / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D050151:Subcutaneous Fat / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult