Anthropometric Indicators of Obesity as Screening Tools for Hypertriglyceridemia in Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Hypertriglyceridemia is a lipid disorder characterized by elevated plasma triglyceride levels, and its prevalence increases with aging. This condition contributes substantially to morbidity and mortality in older adults. In settings with limited access to laboratory testing, especially in developing countries such as Brazil, identifying low-cost and easily applicable screening tools is essential. Objective: To investigate the discriminatory capacity of anthropometric indicators of obesity for screening hypertriglyceridemia in older adults. Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted with 223 community-dwelling older adults (57% women). Independent variables included body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), abdominal circumference (AC), triceps skinfold thickness (TSF), body adiposity index (BAI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), and conicity index (CI). Hypertriglyceridemia was defined as triglyceride levels ≥ 150 mg/dL. Discriminatory performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and associations were examined using Poisson regression with robust variance. Results: The prevalence of hypertriglyceridemia was 35%. Among older men, AC and CI showed the highest sensitivities (88.90% and 77.40%), while WHR and BMI demonstrated the highest specificities (83.10% and 76.90%). In older women, AC and BMI had the highest sensitivities (95.70% and 87.20%), whereas CI and WHtR exhibited the highest specificities (72.50% and 68.80%). All anthropometric indicators were positively associated with hypertriglyceridemia after adjustment for confounders. Conclusions: AC and CI demonstrated the strongest discriminatory capacity for screening older men with a higher probability of presenting hypertriglyceridemia, while AC and BMI showed the greatest discriminatory capacity among older women. In contrast, WHR and BMI had the highest ability to rule out the condition in older men, whereas CI and WHtR performed this role more effectively in older women. These findings show that low-cost anthropometric indicators can be used in a complementary manner, combining the most sensitive and the most specific measures to support an optimized triage process for hypertriglyceridemia in older adults, particularly in resource-limited settings.