ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Prevention
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Vascular Health: A Comprehensive Framework for Non-Traditional Risk AssessmentView all 8 articles
Association between creatinine to body weight ratio and arterial stiffness: a cross-sectional and longitudinal study in Chinese population
Provisionally accepted
Yuan Shen1
Wenbo Zhang2
Xue Tian1
Yijun Zhang1Qin Xu1
Xue Xia1Chenhao Zheng3
Xinsheng Han4*
Xingquan Zhao1*
Anxin Wang1*- 1Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
- 2Xinxiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China
- 3Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick, United States
- 4Kaifeng Central Hospital, Kaifeng, China
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Few studies have explored the relationship between the creatinine to body weight ratio (Cre/BW) and the risk of developing arterial stiffness. Consequently, this research aimed to investigate the connection in the Chinese population. This investigation used data from the Asymptomatic Polyvascular Abnormalities Community study (APAC), which underwent measurement of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). After a two-year follow-up period, 1651 individuals participated in the longitudinal analysis, among whom 464 people had baPWV ≥ 1400 cm/s. Multivariable-adjusted logistic regression was employed to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) along with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the risk of arterial stiffness. The findings from both the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were largely in agreement, with the fully adjusted ORs in the highest tertile of the Cre/BW ratio were 1.36 (95%CI, 1.21–1.64) and 2.09 (95%CI, 1.52–2.87) for arterial stiffness, respectively. Restricted cubic splines (RCS) analyses showed a J-shaped in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Subgroup analysis showed that the associations were stronger in participants under 60 years old (1.40; 95% CI, 1.15-1.71, Pint= 0.0481). In the cross-sectional analysis, the optimal cut-off value of the Cre/BW ratio to predict arterial stiffness was 1.25, in the longitudinal analysis, it was 1.29, with a Youden index was 6.7% and 11%. The study suggested that the Cre/BW ratio was positively associated with the risk of arterial stiffness in Chinese adults.
Keywords: arterial stiffness, Creatinine, Cross-sectional analysis, longitudinal analysis, Skeletal muscle mass, weight
Received: 04 Jun 2025; Accepted: 29 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Shen, Zhang, Tian, Zhang, Xu, Xia, Zheng, Han, Zhao and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xinsheng Han
Xingquan Zhao
Anxin Wang
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