body roundness index and waist-to-height ratio are strongly associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a population-based study

background a strong association between obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (nafld) has been reported. objectives this study was conducted to evaluate if new obesity indices, including a body shape index (absi) and body roundness index (bri), have stronger associations with nafld than waist-to-hip ratio (whr) and waist-to-height ratio (whtr). methods in this cross-sectional study, we utilized the data of 4,872 participants aged 18 - 74 years from a cohort study conducted among 6,143 subjects in northern iran. logistic regression analysis was performed on nafld as the outcome and obesity measures (based on z-score values) as potential predictors. receiver operating characteristic (roc) analyses were conducted, in which nafld was considered as a reference variable and obesity measures as classification variables. the discriminatory ability of the obesity measures was reported based on area-under-the-curves, and the related cut-off points of bri and whtr were determined using the youden index (yi). results based on our results, bri (or = 5.484 for men and or = 3.482 for women) and whtr (or = 5.309 for men and or = 3.854 for women) showed a higher association with nafld than absi (or = 1.363 for men and or = 1.003 for women) and whr (or = 3.123 for men and or = 1.628 for women). the optimal cut-off points for bri were 4.00 (sensitivity = 82.7%, specificity = 70.8%) for men and 5.00 (sensitivity = 83.3%, specificity = 71.7%) for women. the optimal cut-off points for whtr were 0.533 (sensitivity = 82.7%, specificity = 70.8%) for men and 0.580 (sensitivity = 83.3%, specificity = 71.7%) for women. conclusions while bri and whtr have equally strong associations with nafld, absi and whr have weaker associations with nafld than bri and whtr.