Cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in relation to various anthropometric measures of obesity in Europeans

• We use both parametric and nonparametric models to explore the shape of relationship between anthropometric measures of obesity and mortality.
• The existence of threshold is estimated by a piecewise regression model.
• All anthropometric measures of abdominal obesity had positive linear associations with CVD mortality.
• Some anthropometric measures of abdominal obesity showed linear whereas the others showed J-shaped relationships with all-cause mortality.
• BMI had a J-shaped relationship with either CVD or all-cause mortality.

Background and aimsCardiovascular and all-cause mortality in relation to various anthropometric measures of obesity is still controversial.Methods and resultsBody mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), A Body Shape Index (ABSI) and waist-to-hip-to-height ratio (WHHR) were measured at baseline in a cohort of 46,651 European men and women aged 24–99 years. The relationship between anthropometric measures of obesity and mortality was evaluated by the Cox proportional hazards model with age as a time-scale and with threshold detected by a piecewise regression model. Over a median follow-up of 7.9 years, 2381 men and 1055 women died, 1071 men (45.0%) and 339 women (32.1%) from cardiovascular disease (CVD). BMI had a J-shaped relationship with CVD mortality, whereas anthropometric measures of abdominal obesity had positive linear relationships. BMI, WC and WHtR showed J-shaped associations with all-cause mortality, whereas WHR, ABSI and WHHR demonstrated positive linear relationships. Accordingly, a threshold value was detected at 29.29 and 30.98 kg/m2 for BMI, 96.4 and 93.3 cm for WC, 0.57 and 0.60 for WHtR, 0.0848 and 0.0813 m11/6 kg−2/3 for ABSI with CVD mortality in men and women, respectively; 29.88 and 29.50 kg/m2 for BMI, 104.3 and 105.6 for WC, 0.61 and 0.67 for WHtR, 0.95 and 0.86 for WHR, 0.0807 and 0.0765 for ABSI in men and women, respectively, and 0.52 for WHHR in women with all-cause mortality.ConclusionAll anthropometric measures of abdominal obesity had positive linear associations with CVD mortality, whereas some showed linear and the others J-shaped relationships with all-cause mortality. BMI had a J-shaped relationship with either CVD or all-cause mortality. Thresholds detected based on mortality may help with clinical definition of obesity in relation to mortality.