ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1544084
The relationship between Visceral Adiposity Index and estimated Pulse Wave Velocity: Insights from NHANES Database
Provisionally accepted
- 1First People's Hospital of Yibin, Sichuan, China
- 2West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
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Background: Obesity and arterial stiffness are known risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but the relationship between visceral adiposity index (VAI) and estimated pulse wave velocity (ePWV) is still unclear.Methods: This study used cross-sectional study data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database from 2007-2016. After data cleaning, we performed a comprehensive weighted statistical analysis of the final dataset. This included data on demographics, medical history, test results, and chronic comorbidities. We used restricted cubic spline analysis to explore potential non-linear relationships between VAI and ePWV. We also performed weighted linear univariate and multivariate regression analyses to further explore the relationship between VAI and ePWV. Finally, we performed multiple subgroup analyses and interaction tests, as well as sensitivity analyses, to test the stability of this relationship.Results：Finally, 10458 adult participants aged 20 years or older were included in this study, with a mean (SD) age of 49.2 ± 17.4 years after weighted analysis. Restricted cubic spline analysis showed a potentially "inverted-L" non-linear relationship between VAI and ePWV (P for non-linearity: <0.001).The inflection point analysis suggests its inflection point is (1.48: 1.38-1.57). Linear multivariate regression analysis suggested a significant positive correlation between VAI (0.2SD) and ePWV values (β=0.1, 95% CI 0.04-0.17, p<0.001). The positive correlation between VAI (0.2SD) and ePWV levels remained stable in model analyses adjusted for all covariates. This association was also consistent across quartiles of VAI (p-value <0.001 for trend test). These findings remained stable and consistent in subsequent subgroup and sensitivity analyses.In this study, we found that elevated VAI values were significantly and positively associated with ePWV, especially below the inflection point of VAI less than 1.48. This association remained robust after adjustment for multiple confounders and was consistent across multiple subgroup analyses. This suggests that abdominal obesity may play an important role in atherosclerosis and highlights the importance of addressing abdominal obesity to reduce cardiovascular risk.
Keywords: Obesity, arterial stiffness, visceral adiposity index, estimated pulse wave velocity, NHANES
Received: 12 Dec 2024; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Yang and Wei. 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: Shiqiang Yang, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
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