Waist-to-Height Ratio as a Simple and Useful Indicator for Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Korean Women

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: It has not been determined which obesity index might be most appropriate to predict nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in Asian populations. This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of the waist-to-height ratio in assessing patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and to identify the optimal cut-off values useful for predicting nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. METHODS: Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were conducted in order to assess the accuracy of the waist circumference, body mass index, and waist-to-height ratio for detecting nonalcoholic fatty liver disease among 616 women aged 20 years or older. To evaluate the optimal value of anthropometric indices, the Youden J-index (sensitivity+specificity-1) was used. RESULTS: The area under the ROC curve of waist-to-height ratio was highest among anthropometric obesity indices as follows: 0.776 (0.731-0.822) for waist circumference, 0.775 (0.728-0.822) for body mass index, and 0.792 (0.748-0.836) for waist-to-height ratio, respectively. Using a waist-to-height ration cut-off value of 0.49, the sensitivity and specificity for detecting nonalcoholic fatty liver disease were 72.3 % and 74.7%, respectively. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrated that the waist-to-height ratio may be a better obesity index for identifying individuals at risk for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in Korean women.