A comparison of the sensitivity and specificity of anthropometric measurements to predict unhealthy metabolic phenotype in overweight and obese women

Metabolically Healthy Obese (MHO) is called to obese people that their insulin sensitivity, lipid profiles and inflammatory profiles are favorable, and there are no signs of hypertension and cardio-metabolic diseases. The metabolically unhealthy obese (MUHO) is the opposite. A Body Shape Index (ABSI) is a marker to identifying abdominal obesity that is derived from weight, height and waist circumference (WC). Several studies have reported ABSI is associated with diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension and higher mortality rate. A total of 305 overweight and obese women were included in the current comparative cross-sectional study. Body composition was measured using body composition analyzer. Blood samples were obtained. The usual food intake of evaluated through the use of a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. The results of this study revealed that there is a significant relationship between ABSI and MHO and MUHO (p = 0.04) and area under the ROC curve was 0.60. Also there is a significant relationship between BMI, fat mass index (FMI), free fat mass index (FFMI), neck circumference (NC), WC, fat mass (FM) and metabolic healthy status (MHS). The largest area under the ROC curve belonged to NC, WC, FM and BMI (0.66). The findings of this study suggest that there is a significant relationship between ABSI, BMI, FMI, FFMI, NC, WC, FM and MHS. The largest area under the ROC curve was related to the NC, WC, FM and BMI not ABSI, that means NC, WC, FM and BMI have maximum sensitivity and specificity.