ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Renal Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1649521
J-Shaped Association Between Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat and Albuminuria Risk: A Population-Based Study
Provisionally accepted
- The Jinjiang Municipal Hospital, Quanzhou, China
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Objective: Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat (METS-VF) represents a novel metric for assessing visceral fat and its associated cardiometabolic risks. This study evaluated the relationship between METS-VF and the prevalence of albuminuria among U.S. adults. Methods: A cross-sectional study enrolled participants aged 20 years and older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) between 1999 and 2018. Albuminuria was identified as a urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) of 30 mg/g or higher. The Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat (METS-VF) was assessed using the Metabolic Score for Insulin Resistance (METS-IR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), age, and sex. The association between METS-VF and the risk of albuminuria was explored. Results: Among the 22514 adult participants, the albuminuria group exhibited higher METS-VF levels compared to the non-albuminuria group. Furthermore, the prevalence of albuminuria increased progressively with rising METS-VF levels. Adjusted multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed a significant association between METS-VF and the risk of albuminuria (OR=1.406, 95%CI:1.243-1.590, P<0.001). Restricted cubic spline analysis demonstrated a J-shaped dose-response relationship, with a threshold value of 6.128. Mediation analysis further identified hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), blood pressure, oxidative stress, and inflammation as partial mediators of this association. Conclusion: METS-VF may act as a useful epidemiological indicator for assessing visceral fat's role in albuminuria risk among U.S. adults. Additional large-scale prospective research is necessary for confirmation.
Keywords: Albuminuria, Urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio, Metabolic Score forVisceral Fat, NHANES, Population-based Study
Received: 18 Jun 2025; Accepted: 19 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Xu, Zhang, Chen and Liu. 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: Yuren Zhang, zyr9798@163.com
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