OBJECTIVE: To identify the power of overweight and obesity anthropometric indexes to predict lipid changes in adolescents. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out with 660 adolescents aged 14 to 19 years old (317 males; 343 females). The following anthropometric indexes were studied: body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, and conicity index. The lipid changes were characterized by total cholesterol (TC) higher than 170mg/dL and high-density lipoproteins (HDL-C) under 45mg/dL. In order to identify the predictors of lipid changes, the analysis of Receiver Operating Characteristics curves (ROC) was used. The cutoff values were identified with their respective sensitivities and specificities. Then, the prevalence ratio was calculated between anthropometric indicators and investigated outcomes. RESULTS: The areas under the ROC curves (95% confidence interval) for high TC in boys and their respective cutoff values were: BMI of 0.74 (0.65-0.83), 21.7kg/m²; waist circumference of 0.73 (0.65-0.82), 74cm; waist-to-height ratio of 0.72 (0.63-0.81) and 0.4; conicity index of 0.60 (0.50-0.69), 1.1. The areas under the ROC curves (95% confidence interval) for low levels of HDL-C and their respective cutoff values were: BMI for boys of 0.58 (0.52-0.64) and 20.7kg/m²; for the girls of 0.61 (0.53-0.69), 20.8kg/m²; waist circumference, boys with 0.57 (0.50-0.63) and 73.3cm, girls with 0.63 (0.55-0.72) and 71.5cm; waist-to-height (W/H) ratio, boys of 0.58 (0.52-0.65) and W/H of 0.4; girls with 0.62 (0.54-0.70) and W/H of 0.4; and the conicity index, for girls, 0.60 (0.51-0.68) and 1.1. CONCLUSIONS: The anthropometric indexes were good predictors of high TC for boys, and reasonable for low levels of high-density lipoproteins for boys and girls.
cholesterol; obesity; adolescents; anthropometry
