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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Volume 12 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1491818
Sex differences in the prediction of metabolic abnormalities via body mass index in an Eastern Chinese population
Provisionally accepted- Department of Endocrinology, Changhai Hospital, the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
Objective: Body mass index (BMI) is important for predicting the occurrence of metabolic abnormality, but sex differences exist. We aimed to investigate potential sex differences in the predictive value of BMI for metabolic abnormality and to calculate the optimal BMI cut-offs for predicting metabolic abnormality for each sex.Methods: Participants (n=4623) who attended a health check-up centre continuously in Eastern China between January 2022 and December 2023 were evaluated for metabolic abnormalities.We calculated the proportions of different metabolic abnormalities in different sexes. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were calculated to determine the optimal BMI cut-off values for predicting metabolic abnormality in males and females. The recognition rate of each metabolic abnormality using different BMI cut-off values for men and women were evaluated.Results: Among 4623 participants (2234 men and 2389 women), the age-adjusted prevalence of all metabolic abnormalities was significantly greater among males than among females (P<0.001). The optimal cut-off values for predicting metabolic abnormalities were 23.5 kg/m 2 (males) and 21.8 kg/m 2 (females) . When BMI ≥24 kg/m 2 was used as the cut-off value the recognition rates of each abnormal metabolic factor in the male group were all above 50%, while they were mostly below 50% in the female group, except for the recognition of hyperglycaemia and hypertriglyceridemia. However, in females, when BMI ≥22 kg/m 2 was used as the cut-off value, the recognition rates for each abnormal metabolic factor were all above 50%, greater than 4 that when BMI ≥24 kg/m 2 was used (P<0.001).Conclusions: There were sex differences in the BMI thresholds for predicting metabolic abnormalities in the health check-up population.
Keywords: Body Mass Index, Metabolic abnormalities, sex differences, Chinese population；, Health check-up
Received: 05 Sep 2024; Accepted: 10 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gao, Jin, Chen, Chen, Guo and Lu. 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:
Yan Guo, Department of Endocrinology, Changhai Hospital, the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
Jin Lu, Department of Endocrinology, Changhai Hospital, the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China
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