Which is a better anthropometric indicator of cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients? Waist hip ratio or body mass index?

Introduction: The increasing prevalence of adiposity is associated with the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The two most popular methods to measure adiposity are body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip-ratio (WHR), which measure the overall and abdominal adiposity, respectively. The aim of this study was to determine whether BMI or WHR was more strongly associated with macronutrient intakes and lipid profiles in T2DM patients. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 210 T2DM patients, mean age of 56.73(SD 10.23) years, were recruited from Penang. Information on socio-demographic, body measurements (height, weight, waist circumference and hip circumference)and macronutrient intakes (three 24-hour dietary recalls) were recorded. Routine laboratory tests (fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, LDL, HDL, triglyceride and total cholesterol) were performed according to standard procedure. Results:Among the respondents, 84% had abdominal and 63% had overall adiposity respectively.There was a significant correlation between WHR and the total calorie(r=0.27p<0.001), carbohydrate (r=0.30p