Chinese visceral adiposity index, a novel indicator of visceral obesity for assessing the risk of incident hypertension in a prospective cohort study

The present study aimed to investigate the association of the Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI) and its 6-year change with hypertension risk and compare the ability of CVAI and other obesity indices to predict hypertension based on the Rural Chinese Cohort Study. Study participants were randomly recruited by a cluster sampling procedure, and 10 304 participants >= 18 years were included. Modified Poisson regression was used to derive adjusted relative risks (RR) and 95 % CI. We identified 2072 hypertension cases during a median of 6 center dot 03 years of follow-up. The RR for the highest v. lowest CVAI quartile were 1 center dot 29 (95 % CI 1 center dot 05, 1 center dot 59) for men and 1 center dot 53 (95 % CI 1 center dot 22, 1 center dot 91) for women. Per-sd increase in CVAI was associated with hypertension for both men (RR 1 center dot 09, 95 % CI 1 center dot 02, 1 center dot 16) and women (RR 1 center dot 14, 95 % CI 1 center dot 06, 1 center dot 22). Also, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve value for hypertension was higher for CVAI than the four other obesity indices for both sexes (all P < 0 center dot 05). Finally, per-sd increase in CVAI change was associated with hypertension for both men (RR 1 center dot 26, 95 % CI 1 center dot 16, 1 center dot 36) and women (RR 1 center dot 23, 95 % CI 1 center dot 15, 1 center dot 30). Similar results were observed in sensitivity analyses. CVAI and its 6-year change are positively associated with hypertension risk. CVAI has better performance in predicting hypertension than other visceral obesity indices for both sexes. The current findings suggest CVAI as a reliable and applicable predictor of hypertension in rural Chinese adults.