Association of visceral fat metabolic score with bone mineral density and osteoporosis: a NHANES cross-sectional study

Gu, Peng; Shi, Bowen; Zhang, Zheng; Du, Ying; Jia, Yanqing; Zhu, Guowei; Wen, Tianlin; Jia, Zhiwei; Wu, Yaohong; Zhao, Xiyan

doi:10.1186/s41043-025-00914-2

Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition

Table 1 Clinical characteristics by METS-VF quartiles (p-values for interquartile differences)

From: Association of visceral fat metabolic score with bone mineral density and osteoporosis: a NHANES cross-sectional study

Variables	Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat					p-value
Variables	Overall(n = 7385)	Q1(n = 1561)	Q2(n = 1757)	Q3(n = 1992)	Q4(n = 2075)	p-value
Age, years	48.81 ± 15.66	37.85 ± 13.78	46.40 ± 14.52	52.00 ± 13.87	59.01 ± 12.12	< 0.001
Sex, (%)
Male	50.81	37.62	47.01	51.96	66.66	< 0.001
Female	49.19	62.38	52.99	48.04	33.34
Race, (%)
Mexican American	8.48	6.52	8.64	11.11	7.65	< 0.001
Other Hispanic	5.25	3.70	6.00	5.94	5.35
Non-Hispanic White	68.69	69.80	67.04	64.55	73.35
Non-Hispanic Black	10.48	10.79	10.72	11.36	9.03
Other Race	7.11	9.18	7.60	7.04	4.61
Marital status, (%)
No	33.60	40.51	32.60	30.64	30.66	< 0.001
Yes	66.40	59.49	67.40	69.36	69.34
Educational level, (%)
Under High school	6.05	3.80	5.08	7.69	7.62	< 0.001
Completed high school	11.41	10.15	10.17	12.54	12.79
College degree or above	82.54	86.05	84.74	79.77	79.59
PIR	3.08 ± 1.58	3.14 ± 1.60	3.10 ± 1.58	3.03 ± 1.59	3.05 ± 1.57	0.482
Physical activity, (%)
Inactive	42.50	39.02	42.79	42.97	45.23	< 0.001
Moderate	28.93	27.13	26.34	30.54	31.72
Vigorous	5.56	5.42	5.32	5.59	5.89
Both moderate and vigorous	23.01	28.43	25.56	20.91	17.16
Smoking status, (%)
Never	53.23	55.67	54.92	54.76	47.55	< 0.001
Former	25.54	16.13	21.81	26.44	37.79
Current	21.23	28.20	23.27	18.81	14.66
Alcohol use, (%)
No	85.97	83.01	84.44	86.85	89.57	< 0.001
Yes	14.03	16.99	15.56	13.15	10.43
Depression	2.63 ± 3.76	2.44 ± 3.46	2.52 ± 3.54	2.75 ± 3.96	2.83 ± 4.03	0.017
Heart failure, (%)
No	98.23	99.68	99.11	98.36	95.78	< 0.001
Yes	1.77	0.32	0.89	1.64	4.22
Stroke, (%)
No	97.68	99.45	98.62	97.32	95.35	< 0.001
Yes	2.32	0.55	1.38	2.68	4.65
Hypertension, (%)
No	63.34	85.46	72.77	58.10	37.00	< 0.001
Yes	36.66	14.54	27.23	41.90	63.00
Diabetes, (%)
No	87.41	98.24	94.70	85.63	71.04	< 0.001
Yes	12.59	1.76	5.30	14.37	28.96
HEI-2020	51.40 ± 11.20	51.94 ± 11.42	51.66 ± 11.25	51.63 ± 11.14	50.38 ± 10.93	0.068
Total calcium, mg/dL	9.39 ± 0.34	9.43 ± 0.33	9.41 ± 0.33	9.38 ± 0.34	9.35 ± 0.36	< 0.001
Uric acid, mg/dL	5.48 ± 1.37	4.75 ± 1.16	5.25 ± 1.23	5.72 ± 1.31	6.20 ± 1.35	< 0.001
Creatinine, mg/dL	0.88 ± 0.20	0.83 ± 0.16	0.86 ± 0.19	0.88 ± 0.21	0.94 ± 0.24	< 0.001
Total femur BMD, g/cm²	0.97 ± 0.16	0.94 ± 0.15	0.95 ± 0.15	0.98 ± 0.16	1.01 ± 0.15	< 0.001
Femoral neck BMD, g/cm²	0.83 ± 0.15	0.82 ± 0.14	0.82 ± 0.15	0.83 ± 0.15	0.84 ± 0.15	0.064
Trochanter BMD, g/cm²	0.73 ± 0.13	0.71 ± 0.12	0.72 ± 0.13	0.74 ± 0.13	0.77 ± 0.13	< 0.001
Intertrochanter BMD, g/cm²	1.15 ± 0.18	1.10 ± 0.17	1.13 ± 0.18	1.16 ± 0.18	1.20 ± 0.18	< 0.001
Osteoporosis, (%)
No	94.60	94.80	92.89	94.84	95.85	0.015
Yes	5.40	5.20	7.11	5.16	4.15
VAI	4.66 ± 7.89	2.53 ± 3.31	3.86 ± 3.65	5.31 ± 5.66	6.92 ± 13.49	< 0.001
METS-VF	6.77 ± 0.71	5.77 ± 0.49	6.67 ± 0.15	7.10 ± 0.11	7.54 ± 0.18	< 0.001

Number (n) matches the actual number of cases sampled, and all other analyses are weighted. Data were Mean ± SD for continuous variables or proportions for categorical variables
Abbreviations: PIR, ratio of family income to poverty; HEI, healthy eating index; BMD, bone mineral density; VAI, visceral adiposity index

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ISSN: 2072-1315

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