Evaluation of different anthropometric indices for predicting metabolic syndrome

OBJECTIVE: Metabolic syndrome is a condition characterized by metabolic abnor-malities. Its overall prevalence increases with age, in turn resulting in a substantial burden of disease all around the world. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of several anthro-pometric indices for predicting metabolic syn-drome among the elderly people.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This study was conducted on 348 elderly people aged 65 and over, including those who were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome based on the National Cho-lesterol Education Program's Adult Treatment Panel III criteria and those who did not suffer from metabolic syndrome. A trained dietitian performed body weight, height, waist circum-ference, and hip circumference measurements. Furthermore, body mass index, waist-hip ra-tio, waist-height ratio, conicity index, abdomi-nal volume index, body shape index, and body roundness index values were measured. The re-ceiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to assess the capability of these indices to predict metabolic syndrome. RESULTS: Of the 348 subjects recruited, 56.0% had metabolic syndrome. Body Round-ness Index had the largest area under the curve for predicting metabolic syndrome in both males and females (0.678 and 0.645, respectively), fol-lowed by abdominal volume index (0.673 and 0.626, respectively) and waist circumference (0.672 and 0.626, respectively).CONCLUSIONS: Body roundness index was more effective compared to the other seven in-dices for predicting metabolic syndrome in the elderly population in Turkey.