Association between metabolic score for visceral fat and hypertension in Korean adults: a nationwide population-based study.

Abstract

Background Hypertension, one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease, is associated with visceral adiposity accumulation. Accordingly, we aimed to investigate the association between the metabolic score for visceral fat (METS-VF), a novel surrogate marker of visceral adiposity, and hypertension in Korean adults. Methods This cross-sectional study included 27,565 adults from the 2019-2023 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Weighted multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between METS-VF tertiles and hypertension. Discriminatory performance was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and the areas under the ROC curves were compared with those of other adiposity-related indices. Results The prevalence of hypertension increased significantly across the METS-VF tertiles. After adjustment for potential confounders, the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for hypertension were 2.50 (2.04-3.06) in the second tertile and 2.76 (2.09-3.63) in the highest tertile, compared with the lowest METS-VF tertile. Moreover, METS-VF showed greater discriminatory performance for hypertension than the other adiposity-related indices. Conclusion These findings indicate that METS-VF is strongly associated with hypertension in Korean adults and provides a more comprehensive assessment of cardiovascular risk than conventional adiposity-related indices.