Conicity index as an indicator of abdominal obesity in individuals with chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis

by Cleodice Alves Martins, Camila Bruneli do Prado, Júlia Rabelo Santos Ferreira, Monica Cattafesta, Edson Theodoro dos Santos Neto, Fabiano Kenji Haraguchi, José Luiz Marques-Rocha, Luciane Bresciani Salaroli

The conicity index is indicated as a tool for assessing the nutritional status of renal individuals undergoing hemodialysis. Thus, this study aimed to estimate the prevalence of abdominal obesity using the conicity index in individuals with chronic kidney disease undergoing hemodialysis to verify its association with sociodemographic, clinical, and lifestyle factors.

This is a cross-sectional study with 941 individuals undergoing hemodialysis in a metropolitan area in southeastern Brazil. The conicity index was estimated and cutoffs of 1.275 and 1.285 for men and women, respectively, were used. For the analysis of the results, binary logistic regression was performed and the odds ratio (OR) was estimated with their respective confidence intervals (95% CI).

The conicity index was high in 56.54% of men (95% CI: 34.34–70.16) and 43.46% of women (95% CI: 38.45–55.20). We found that both adult men (OR = 3.71; 95% CI: 2.27–6.07) and adult women (OR = 4.06; 95% CI: 2.41–6.84) were more likely to have abdominal obesity, as well as self-declared mixed-raced (OR: 1.74; 95% CI: 1.01–3.00) and single men (OR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.00–2.68).

The conicity index is an important anthropometric indicator to estimate abdominal obesity in individuals with chronic kidney disease on hemodialysis.