Fig. 1

Nonlinear association between continuous BMI or WHtR and mortality. A-D BMI and mortality. E–H WHtR and mortality. HRs (solid lines) and 95% CIs (shaded areas) are based on weighted restricted cubic splines. The gray areas in the background show the distributions (histograms) of BMI or WHtR in the population. Solid dots represent risk inflection points for nonlinear associations. Effect size for per unit change in BMI (1 kg/m²) and WHtR (0.1) before and after the inflection point are shown separately. Models were adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, waist circumference (for BMI analysis) or BMI (for WHtR analysis), education level, marital status, poverty income ratio, smoking status, alcohol consumption, systolic blood pressure, heart rate, ASCVD, diabetes mellitus, COPD, cancer, aspirin, lipid-lowering drugs, hypoglycemic agents, and laboratory measurements (white blood cell count, hemoglobin, albumin, creatinine, urea nitrogen, glycohemoglobin, total cholesterol, and HDL-C). ASCVD, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. HDL-C, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. HR, hazard ratio. CI, confidence interval