Discriminatory ability of adiposity phenotypes in identifying cardiometabolic disorders in indigenous and non-indigenous African populations

Abstract Background Whether any of the anthropometric indices are associated with cardiometabolic outcomes in indigenous Fulani African populations is not known. This study evaluates anthropometric indices in Fulani and non-autochthonous populations in predicting cardiometabolic outcomes in indigenous and non-indigenous populations. Methods A population-based cross-sectional study recruited 1 921 participants of similar median aged 32 (24–45) years from Fulbe (settled Fulani), Mbororo (nomadic pastoral Fulani) and the general population. Body weight (BW), height, waist circumference (WC), and hip circumference (HC) were measured and body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), Conicity Index (Cindex), body adiposity index (BAI), body roundness index (BRI) and body shape index (ABSI) were determined. The associations of anthropometric indices with cardiometabolic disorders were assessed by multivariable adjusted logistic regression and the area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve compared the predictive abilities. Results Women had higher prevalence of MetS and the men had higher prevalence of hypertension and IFG/diabetes/hypertension while the prevalence of IFG/diabetes was similar in men and women. In women, the ROC and multivariable logistic regression analyses both showed consistent good performance of BW and BMI in identifying IFG/Diabetes in Fulbe and general population; BW, HC, BMI and BAI in Mbororo and BW, WC, HC, WHtR, and BRI in general population to predict hypertension and IFG/diabetes/hypertension. All the anthropometric indices showed good performance in all the groups to identify MetS. In men, WC, HC and BRI had good performance in all the groups while WC and BRI had good performance in all groups and HC in Fulbe and Mbororo to predict hypertension. The BW, WC, HC, BMI, WHtR, BAI and BRI showed consistent good performance in all the groups to predict MetS. Conclusion Anthropometric indices of adiposity are important risk assessing tools for cardiometabolic disorders in indigenous as well as non-autochthonous populations varying by ethnic group and sex.