Surrogate Measures of Adiposity and Cardiometabolic Risk – Why the Uncertainty? A Review of Recent Meta-Analytic Studies

The increasing obesity epidemic has become a significant public health concern worldwide, as excess body fat has been shown to be strongly related to cardiometabolic risk. Measurement of adiposity is commonly used as an indicator of health and various anthropometric measurement procedures have been proposed to characterise individual susceptibility to cardiometabolic conditions. Although extensive research has attempted to quantify relationships between different adiposity measures and morbidity, results have been conflicting and inconclusive, and considerable controversy still exists as to which anthropometric measurement most accurately defines nonoptimal body fat distribution.In this review we describe the most commonly used indices of general and central adiposity and review the most recently completed meta-analytic studies to determine which adiposity measure is most strongly associated with, and the best discriminator of, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mortality.