Original Research
Anthropometric predictors for cardiovascular risk in Indigenous women in Mexico: an inexpensive alternative in rural clinical practice
AUTHORS
María del Carmen Guzmán Márquez1 PhD, Coordinator School of Nutrition
Ivonne Vizcarra-Bordi2 PhD, Professor and Researcher 
TERESA OCHOA RIVERA3 PhD, Professor and Researcher
Alejandra D Benitez-Arciniega4 PhD, Professor and Researcher *
AFFILIATIONS
1 Health Sciences, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Paseo Tollocan esq. Jesús Carranza, s/n Col. Moderna de la Cruz, Toluca 50180, México; and School of Nutrition, Instituto Universitario del Estado de México (IUEM), Boulevard Toluca Metepec No. 352 Col, La Purísima, Metepec 52140, México
2 Institute of Agricultural and Rural Sciences, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEM), Paseo Tollocan esq. Jesús Carranza, s/n Col. Moderna de la Cruz, Toluca 50180, México; and Maize: Food, Technology, Ecology and Culture (REMATEC)
3 Department of Research and Teaching, School of Dietetics and Nutrition, Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado, Callejón via, Av San Fernando No. 12, San Pedro Apóstol, Tlalpan 14070, México
4 School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEM), Av. Paseo Tollocan, C. Jesús Carranza, Moderna de la Cruz, 50180 Toluca de Lerdo, Méx
ACCEPTED: 28 August 2021
early abstract:
Objective: To evaluate and demonstrate predictive capacity of three anthropometric indexes for cardiovascular risk (CVR) in Indigenous women in Mexico from Matlatzinca Ethnic group.
Methods: Cross-sectional study of 93 Indigenous women. The CVR was calculated with Framingham Risk Score and used as the reference method by comparing it with waist-circumference (WC), conicity-index (CoI) and waist-height-index (WHtR). Receiver operator characteristic curves (ROC-curves) were used to analyze area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity and specificity for each anthropometric index.
Results: Cut-off points and AUC for each AI were: WHtR=0.63 (0.763), CoI=1.29 (0.756) and WC=91 (0.663).
Conclusions: In this population, WHtR presented greater discrimination power, considering it as the best predictor of CVR according to its high sensitivity. It was demonstrated that these anthropometric indexes could be used in clinical practice in rural areas without sufficient resources for serological tests.