Association Between Mid-upper Arm Circumference and Cardiometabolic Risk in Chinese Population: a Cross-sectional Study

Overview

Journal BMJ Open

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2019 Sep 11

PMID 31501106

Citations 12

Authors

Yanan Hou

Xu Jia

Liping Xuan

Wen Zhu

Chanjuan Deng

Long Wang

Zhiyun Zhao

Mian Li

Jieli Lu

Yu Xu

Yuhong Chen

Weiqing Wang

Yufang Bi

Min Xu

Tiange Wang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objectives: Upper body fat has been associated with an unfavourable cardiometabolic risk. We aimed to investigate the associations between mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC), a novel indicator of upper body fat, and a wide spectrum of cardiometabolic risk profiles in Chinese population.

Design And Setting: Cross-sectional analyses were performed using data from a well-defined community in 2014, Shanghai, China.

Participants: A total of 6287 Chinese adults (2310 men and 3977 women) aged 40 years or older.

Outcome Measures: Multivariable logistic regression model was used to examine the associations of MUAC with cardiometabolic disorders including central obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hypertriglyceridaemia, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and subclinical atherosclerosis.

Results: In the overall participants, after multivariable adjustment, each 1 SD (3.13 cm) increment in MUAC was positively associated with central obesity (OR 2.05; 95% CI 1.85 to 2.28), hypertension (OR 1.10; 95% CI 1.03 to 1.19) and low HDL cholesterol (OR 1.10; 95% CI 1.01 to 1.22). Multivariable-adjusted ORs for subclinical atherosclerosis were gradually increased across increasing quartiles of MUAC with the lowest quartile as reference (quartile 2: OR 1.31; 95% CI 1.09 to 1.58; quartile 3: OR 1.33; 95% CI 1.10 to 1.62; quartile 4: OR 1.45; 95% CI 1.16 to 1.80; p for trend=0.005). Similar but more prominent associations were observed among women than men. In addition, MUAC was significantly interacted with diabetes (p for interaction=0.04) and insulin resistance (p for interaction=0.01) on subclinical atherosclerosis.

Conclusion: A greater MUAC was positively associated with higher risks of several cardiometabolic disorders and subclinical atherosclerosis in Chinese adults.

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