Validity of Anthropometric Cut-offs for Early Diagnosis of Dyslipidemia among Adults in Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia

Background: Lack of regional and local based cut off points of lipid profile and/or anthropometric measurement remains one of the challenges in prevention, early detection and control of non-communicable diseases. This study was aimed to validate anthropometric based screening of lipid profile in order to prevent potential predictors of major non-communicable diseases.Methods: Community based cross sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 977 adults in Jimma Town, Ethiopia from July 20 to August 20, 2019. Data were collected using structured questionnaire, anthropometric and biochemical measurements. Data were analyzed using SPSS windows version 20 and Kappa statistic (K) was used to validate the agreement between anthropometric measurement and lipid profile of the study participants. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Body mass index (BMI) at ≥24.5 was used as screening of dyslipidemia (TG≥150mg/dl) with slight Kappa coefficient of 0.138 (P<0.001) among females while it was ≥22.2 among males with fair (0.275) Kappa coefficient (P<0.001). Waist circumference based screening of dyslipidemia (TG≥ 150mg/dl) at ≥78.0cm had negative (-0.005) Kappa coefficient (P<0.001) among females (sensitivity: 72.6% & specificity: 26.7%). Yet, waist circumference at ≥83.7cm had slight Kappa coefficient of 0.13(P<0.005) among males (sensitivity: 38% & specificity: 74.9%). Waist hip ratio based screening of dyslipidemia (TG≥150mg/dl) at ≥0.82 among females had negative (-0.001) Kappa coefficient (p=0.763) whereas among males at ≥0.88 there was a slight (0.105) Kappa coefficient of (p=0.002) (Sensitivity: 77.5% & Specificity: 36.8%). This study showed that anthropometric based of high-density lipoprotein measurement was not applicable. Conclusions: Findings of this study indicated that BMI-based screening of triglyceride was applicable for both sexes than other anthropometric measurements. Waist circumference and Waist to hip ratio-based screening of triglyceride was slightly applicable only for males. However, anthropometric based screening of high-density lipoprotein measurement was not applicable for both sexes. In conclusion, researchers and policy makers need to consider local cut off points to conduct screening nutritional status of the community.