Waist to Height Ratio is the Preferred Way to Measure the Association between Obesity and Bisphenol a Exposure

Bisphenol A-induced weight gain using four body measurements (body mass index, waist circumference, waist to height ratio & adult body fat percentage), in adults 18-74 years has been connected with obesity and diabetes. So a cross-sectional analysis of urinary bisphenol A concentrations by four body measurements, using six pooled datasets from the 2003-2014 biennial National Health and Nutritional Examination Surveys. After adjustment by survey year, age, race, gender, diabetic status, education level, and smoking status, obesity was positively associated odds ratios of having bisphenol A exposure in each of the four body measurements. In addition, bisphenol A exposures of 1.73-3.52ng/mL had highest chances of being either obese or overweight. Higher bisphenol A exposure had association with obesity when using the waist to height ratio cutoff (≥0.58) as compared with the three other measures that can be calculated with the biennial dataset. This correlation suggests that waist to height ratio should be preferred over the other three body measurements examined.