Assessment of adiposity distribution and its association with diabetes and insulin resistance: a population-based study

Background Rational measures in estimating adiposity distribution in diabetic patients has yet to be validated. This study aims to provide insight about the possible links between routinely available body adiposity parameters and the development of both diabetes and insulin resistance. Methods We performed a population-based cross-sectional study in 9496 subjects aged 40 years or older. All of the body adiposity measures including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-hip ratio (WHR), waist-height ratio (WHtR), visceral adiposity index (VAI), body adiposity index (BAI) and lipid accumulation product index (LAP) were separately evaluated according to standard measurement methods. Diabetes was diagnosed according to the American Diabetes Association 2010 criteria. Results All tested body adiposity measurements were significantly associated with fasting plasma glucose (FPG), oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) 2 h glucose, HbA1c and fasting insulin. Compared with other adiposity phenotypes, LAP have shown the relatively strongest while BAI have shown the relatively weakest association with increased odds of both diabetes and insulin resistance across all logistic regression models. Additionally, LAP provided the best discrimination accuracy for diabetes [area under the curve (AUC): 0.658 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.645-0.671] and insulin resistance (AUC: 0.781 95% CI 0.771-0.792) when compared with other body adiposity parameters. Conclusions The LAP index seems to be a better indicator than other adiposity measures tested in the study to evaluate the association of visceral fat mass with diabetes and insulin resistance, which should be given more consideration in the clinical practice.