Association of the conicity index with diabetes and hypertension in Brazilian women.

Objective: The goal of this study was evaluate the conicity index (C index) in women and its association with hypertension (SAH) and diabetes mellitus (DM).

Subjects and methods: This was a cross-sectional study, with 573 women between 20 and 59 years of age. After analysis of clinical and demographic characteristics, anthropometric variables were measured and used to calculate the C index. Plasma glucose and lipid profile were evaluated by standard methods. The analysis of the results was based on logistic regression and the odds ratio (OR) was calculated, which was used to assess the association of the variable outcome with the variable exposure using two logistic regression models that tested the possible influence of the C index in the chance of developing SAH or DM. A confidence interval of 95% was used.

Results: In the crude and adjusted models, the OR confirmed the association of the C index with DM and SAH. Compared with women that showed C index p < 75, the risk of women with C index (p ≥ 75) developing DM and SAH was 1.72 and 1.75, respectively. Results demonstrated that the negative impact of age on these associations significantly raised the odds of women having DM and SAH. The high C index was also linked to low HDL-C.

Conclusion: The C index is an important tool in estimating the risk of diabetes and hypertension in women. Besides, high C indexes are negatively associated with HDL-C, an important lipid marker related to cardiovascular risk.