Assessing the relationship between a body shape index and mortality in a group of middle-aged men

Background & aims: Recently, a new anthropometric parameter emerged, namely A Body Shape Index (ABSI), which appears to be a major risk factor for mortality in the American and British populations. To the best of our knowledge, the relationship between ABSI and mortality was not studied previously in the middle-aged Chinese men. Therefore, we assessed the relationship based on a 15-year prospective study. Methods: In an urban community of Chengdu, 780 middle-aged Chinese men were included in 1992 and followed up for 15 years. Results: During the follow-up, 29 subjects died (mortality rate: 3.7%), and ABSI tended to be linearly associated with mortality. The subjects could be categorized into five groups by the quintiles of baseline ABSI, as follows: the first quintile (Q1), the second quintile (Q2), the third quintile (Q3), the fourth quintile (Q4) and the fifth quintile (Q5). Across the quintiles, the mortality rates were 3.8%, 5.3%, 3.0%, 4.7% and 1.9% in Ql, Q2, Q3, Q4 and Q5, respectively (p(trend) = 0.386). With the highest quintile (Q5) as reference, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses presented that ABSI was not associated with mortality. Conclusions: ABSI, a new anthropometric parameter, might not be associated with mortality in the middle-aged Chinese men. Further studies are needed to explore the specificities of ABSI in different populations. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved: