Table 3.

Best fit in receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of NC, WC and WHR to distinguish categories of body fatness and presence of MetS risk factors by sex in a cohort of predominantly African American college students. ^*

	Risk Factor	Predictive Biomarker	Biomarker Cut-offs (cm)	Sensitivity (TP/(TP+FN))	Specificity (TN/(TN+FP))	ROC Best Fit	Selected Biomarker Cut-offs (cm)
Women (n=68; age 18–25 y)	Body Fatness (lower fat vs. higher fat)	NC	35.5	0.417	0.971	0.388
		WC-MP	86	0.667	0.971	0.638
		WC-Suprailiac	88	0.750	0.829	0.579
		WHR-MP	0.87	0.417	0.971	0.388
		WHR-Suprailiac	0.87	0.542	0.800	0.342
	MetS Criteria (no positive risk vs. ≥1 risk factor)	NC	33.5	0.580	1.000	0.580
		WC-MP	75	0.900	1.000	0.900	75
		WC-Suprailiac	88	0.667	0.667	0.333
		WHR-MP	0.79	0.620	0.875	0.495
		WHR-Suprailiac	0.93	0.417	0.889	0.306
Men (n=41; age 18–25 y)	Body Fatness (lower fat vs. higher fat)	NC	38.0	0.889	0.654	0.543
		WC-MP	83	1.000	0.885	0.885	83
		WC-Suprailiac	88	1.000	0.923	0.923	88
		WHR-MP	0.88	0.778	0.962	0.739
		WHR-Suprailiac	0.90	0.778	0.962	0.739
	MetS Criteria (no risk vs. ≥ 1 risk factor)	NC	41.5	0.222	0.903	0.125
		WC-MP	92	0.571	1.000	0.571
		WC-Suprailiac	88	0.444	0.774	0.219
		WHR-MP	0.88	0.500	0.962	0.462
		WHR-Suprailiac	0.93	0.333	0.935	0.269

^*FN, false negative; MetS, metabolic syndrome; MP, waist measured at the mid-point, half-way between the lower rib and superior iliac crest; NC, neck circumference; Suprailiac, waist measured at the superior iliac crest; TP, true positive; WC, waist circumference; WHR, waist-hip ratio. A perfect classification prediction method would yield a ROC coordinate of 0,1 (a best fit value of 1.0).