Research

Hormonal

Abdominal obesity indices (CVAI, NC, WC, WHR, LAP, VAI) are not associated with the prevalence of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in diabetic adults, regardless of BMI adjustment.

Clinicians should not rely on abdominal obesity indices (like CVAI or Neck Circumference) to screen for diabetic retinopathy risk. Regular eye exams remain the gold standard for DR detection, as these body measurements do not correlate with retinal disease prevalence in diabetic patients.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
in both men and women, a one SD increase in NC, WC, WHR, LAP, VAI, and CVAI was not associated with the prevalence of DR (all P for trend > 0.05)... no significant associations of BMI, NC, WC, WHR, LAP, VAI, and CVAI with the prevalence of DR among men or women were found.
Heng Wan et al. · Cardiovascular Diabetology · 2020

Why this rating

Large sample size and consistent findings across genders.

Source

Associations between abdominal obesity indices and diabetic complications: Chinese visceral adiposity index and neck circumference

Heng Wan et al. · Cardiovascular Diabetology · 2020

DOI 10.1186/s12933-020-01095-4

cross_sectional · n=4658Cited 306×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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