Novel and traditional anthropometric indices to identify metabolic syndrome and metabolically healthy obesity in obese women

Aims: Traditional anthropometric indices may be inadequate for distinguishing obese individuals with low metabolic risk or those who are metabolically healthy. Therefore, newer, innovative indices may offer improved diagnostic accuracy. Current study aims to evaluate effectiveness of both traditional and novel anthropometric indices in identifying metabolic syndrome (MetS) and assessing metabolic risk factors such serum uric acid (SUA) and atherogenic index of plasma (AIP). Methods: This was a retrospective study involving data of 292 obese women. The patients were separated into groups according to presence of MetS and their SUA and AIP levels. Predictive power was estimated using receiver operating characteristic curves, by comparing the area under the curve (AUC). Results: Our results showed that all novel indices except the weight-adjusted waist index (WWI) had potential utility in diagnosing MetS. The lipid accumulation product (LAP) index had the highest AUC for MetS diagnosis, with a value of 0.832 (95% CI: 0.783–0.880). The abdominal volume index (AVI) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) showed the highest sensitivity (82.3%), while the waist-triglyceride index (WTI) had the highest specificity (89%). Conclusion: Notably, both the visceral adiposity index (VAI) and LAP index achieved specificity and sensitivity values exceeding 70% and can be used in MetS screening of obese women. In contrast, the WWI was found to be statistically insufficient for defining MetS and distinguishing between SUA and AIP groups.