Sex-specific relationship between visceral fat index and dyslipidemia in Chinese rural adults: The Henan Rural Cohort Study

The study aimed to explore the relationship between visceral fat index (VFI) and dyslipidemia and evaluate the efficiency of VFI as a marker for identifying dyslipidemia in Chinese rural adults. The cross-sectional study recruited 35,832 aged 18-79 years eligible participants from The Henan Rural Cohort Study. VFI was measured by bioelectrical impendence methods and classified into sex-specific quartiles. Fasting blood samples were collected. Logistic regression models with VFI as a categorical variable and restricted cubic spline regression models with VFI as a continuous variable were performed to obtain odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was conducted to evaluate the identifying performance of VFI. The age-standardized prevalence of dyslipidemia was 29.80% and 26.01% in male and female, respectively. Increasing VFI quartiles were significantly positively related to the risk of dyslipidemia and its components (Pfor trend < 0.01). The adjusted ORs (95% CIs) for per 1-SD increase in VFI were 2.11 (2.02-2.20) and 1.52 (1.47-1.56) in male and female, respectively, and dose-response relationships were observed in both genders (Pfor nonlinearity < 0.01). In addition, area under the curves (AUCs) in male (0.697) was larger than in female (0.655) (P < 0.05). VFI was significantly positively related to the risk of dyslipidemia and its components, and the risk was shown to be more prominent in male. Meanwhile, dose-response relationships were observed in both genders. Furthermore, VFI might be a relatively effective marker for identifying dyslipidemia in male, but not in female.