Hanieh-Sadat Ejtahed
1 
, Roya Kelishadi
2, Shirin Hasani-Ranjbar
1, Pooneh Angoorani
1, Mohammad Esmaeil Motlagh
3, Gita Shafiee
4, Hasan Ziaodini
5, Majzoubeh Taheri
6, Mostafa Qorbani
7,8*, Ramin Heshmat
4*1 Obesity and Eating Habits Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinical Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Pediatrics, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
3 Department of Pediatrics, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
4 Chronic Diseases Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
5 Health Psychology Research Center, Education Ministry, Tehran, Iran
6 Office of Adolescents and School Health, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran
7 Non-communicable Diseases Research Center, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran
8 Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinical Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: The purpose of this study was to obtain the cutoff points of visceral adiposity index (VAI), a new marker of indirect evaluation of visceral fat, to assess its association with metabolic syndrome (MetS) in a population of children and adolescents.
Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted on children and adolescents aged 7-18 years attended in the fifth phase of a national school-based surveillance survey. The odds ratio (OR) of cardiometabolic risk factors across tertile categories of VAI was determined using the logistic regression models and the valid cut-off values of VAI for predicting MetS was obtained using the receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.
Results: A total of 3843 students (52.3% boys, 12.3 [12.2-12.4] years) were included in the analysis. The mean of VAI was significantly higher in participants who had MetS (2.60 [2.42-2.78] vs 1.22 [1.19-1.25]; P <0.001). Participants in the third tertile compared to the first tertile category of VAI had higher odds of abdominal obesity (OR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.43-2.20), impaired fasting blood glucose (OR: 2.00, 95% CI: 1.28-3.13) and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR: 15.93, 95% CI: 12.27-20.66). The cut-off points of the VAI for predicting MetS were 1.58, 1.30 and 1.78 in total population, boys and girls, respectively.
Conclusion: We determined the cut-off points of VAI as an easy tool for detecting MetS in children and adolescents and demonstrated that VAI is strongly associated with MetS. Prospective longitudinal studies are suggested to show the possible efficiency of the VAI as a predictor of MetS in pediatrics.