Association of weight-adjusted-waist index with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in individuals with diabetes or prediabetes: a cohort study from NHANES 2005–2018

Weight-adjusted waist index (WWI) is a new marker of central obesity. This study explored the association of WWI with all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in individuals with diabetes or prediabetes. 6551 participants with diabetes or prediabetes from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) records between 2005 and 2018 were included. The association of WWI with all-cause and CVD mortality was assessed using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, Cox proportional hazards model (Cox regression), and restricted cubic spline (RCS). The predictive value of WWI for mortality was analyzed using time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC). There were 1083 all-cause deaths and 360 CVD deaths. Multivariable-adjusted Cox regression analyses showed WWI was positively correlated with the risk of all-cause and CVD mortality in subjects with diabetes or prediabetes. Multivariate-adjusted RCS analyses showed a linear and positive correlation of WWI with all-cause mortality risk, and a nonlinear relationship with CVD mortality, with a threshold of 12.35. The area under the curve (AUC) for 3, 5, and 10-years survival for all-cause mortality was 0.795, 0.792, and 0.812, respectively, and for CVD mortality was 0.815, 0.833, and 0.831, respectively. WWI is a valuable predictor of all-cause mortality risk in patients with diabetes and prediabetes, and a valuable predictor of CVD mortality risk when patients with diabetes and prediabetes are considered as a whole.