The Association of Subscapular Skinfold with All-Cause, Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Mortality

Purpose: Previous studies suggested inconsistent relationship between subscapular skinfold and all-cause, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular mortality. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the associations between subscapular skinfold with all-cause, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular mortality.

Patients and methods: Data were collected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES, 1999-2006) with follow-up data through 31 December 2015. Participants were categorized by subscapular skinfold quartiles. The hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were evaluated using the multivariate Cox regression model and subgroup analysis. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to present cause-specific mortalities and used Cox cubic regression splines to examine the association of subscapular skinfold with cause-specific mortalities.

Results: A total of 16,402 subjects (49.61% male) were involved in our study. After a mean follow-up of 141.73 months, there were 3078 (18.77%), 392 (2.39%), and 128 (0.78%) cases of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular mortality, respectively. Participants in the highest quartile of subscapular skinfold (≥24.80mm) versus the lowest (<13.20mm) had lower risk for all-cause mortality (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.57-0.89; P for trend = 0.007) and cardiovascular mortality (HR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.23-0.83; P for trend = 0.023) in the fully adjusted model. In the age-stratified analysis, subscapular skinfold was only inversely associated with all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in people ≥65 years of age (all P-interaction <0.001). No significant difference was found between subscapular skinfold and cerebrovascular mortality (all P > 0.05).

Conclusion: Subscapular skinfold showed an inverse association with all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in people aged ≥65 years.