Background and objectiveThe visceral adiposity index (VAI), as a composite indictor to evaluate visceral adipose function, has been demonstrated to be correlated with atherosclerosis. The study objective was to explore the association between asymptomatic intracranial arterial stenosis (aICAS) and VAI in Chinese rural dwellers.MethodsThe cross-sectional study consisted of 1942 participants  ≥ 40 years old who were living in Pingyin County, Shandong Province and free from history of clinical stroke and transient ischemic attack. The aICAS in the study was diagnosed by transcranial doppler ultrasound combined with magnetic resonance angiography. The multivariate logistic regression models were deployed to explore the correlation of VAI with aICAS, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were plotted to compare the performance of models.ResultsThe participants with aICAS comparing to those without had a significantly higher VAI. After adjusting for confounding factors including age, hypertension, DM, sex, drinking habit, LDL-C, hsCRP, and smoking habit, the VAI-Tertile 3 (vs. VAI-Tertile 1) was positively associated with aICAS (OR, 2.15; 95% CI, 1.25–3.65;P= 0.005). The VAI-Tertile 3 was still markedly associated with aICAS among the underweight and normal weight (BMI ≤ 23.9 kg/m2) participants (OR, 3.17; 95% CI, 1.15–8.71;P= 0.026) with an AUC = 0.684. A similar relationship between VAI and aICAS was obtained among the participants with no abdominal obesity (WHR < 1, OR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.14–3.62;P= 0.017).ConclusionsThe possible correlation between VAI and aICAS was found to be positive for the first time among Chinese rural residents over 40 years old. A higher VAI was found to be significantly associated with aICAS among the participants who were underweight or normal weight, and these results may provide additional risk stratification information for aICAS.