What is Visceral Adiposity Index and why it is calculated?

Visceral obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes; therefore, it is crucial to identify visceral adiposity. Visceral obesity, is associated with an increased risk of metabolic diseases, such as dysglycemia (pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes), dyslipidemia, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) are the gold standard for determining visceral obesity. However, they are unsuitable for clinical practices because they are time-consuming, costly and harmful.

Visceral Adiposity Index can replace imaging procedures with the advantages of reduced economic burden and can be used as screening tool for surveillance of cardiometabolic risk  in Indian population.

The simplicity of WC and BMI measurement and TG and HDL assessment, make Visceral Adiposity Index an easily applicable index to estimate visceral adiposity.

Visceral Adiposity Index is calculated as following (both TG and HDL-C  expressed in mmol/L):

Males: VAI=(WC/39.68+(1.88×BMI))×(TG/1.03)×(1.31/HDL−C)
Females:VAI=(WC/36.58+(1.89×BMI))×(TG/0.81)×(1.52/HDL−C)

Chinese VAI, a better index  is calculated by the following formula:

Males: CVAI=−267.93+0.68×age+0.03×BMI+4.00×WC(cm)+22.0×Log10TG−16.32×HDL−C;
Females: CVAI=−187.32+1.71×age+4.23×BMI+1.12×WC(cm)+39.76×Log10TG−11.66×HDL−C.