Markers of abdominal adiposity significantly associated with risk of stroke and transient ischaemic attacks
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BMI as standard measure of global adiposity does not capture muscle-to-fat contribution to body mass nor fat distribution. This case-control study including 1137 participants – 379 cases with stroke/transient ischaemic attacks (TIA) and 758 regional controls matched for age and sex – was designed to evaluate the contribution of obesity and abdominal fat mass (from anthropometry-derived markers) to the risk of stroke and TIA. Conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that BMI showed a positive association with cerebrovascular risk, which became nonsignificant after adjusting for physical inactivity, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes. Significant associations with risk of stroke/TIA were found for markers of abdominal adiposity. Adjusted odds ratios for every successive tertile of waist-to-hip ratio were greater than that of the previous tertile. Waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio (another surrogate for central adiposity) were also significantly associated with risk of stroke/TIA. In conclusion, the study results show that markers of abdominal adiposity were strongly associated with risk of stroke/TIA. Waist circumference and related ratios are better predictors of cerebrovascular events than BMI.
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