Objective To evaluate the association of body weight with brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) in females.Methods A total of 2 921 residents (≥20 years old) were selected by the stratified cluster random sampling method from March to December 2011.Arterial stiffness was assessed by baPWV.Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the effect of body mass index (BMI) on arteriosclerosis.The predictive value of BMI to evaluate arteriosclerosis was analyzed by using receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curve.Results The prevalence of arteriosclerosis was significantly increased in overweight/obese residents (P＜0.01).BMI was positively correlated with baPWV (r=0.310,P＜0.01).The prevalence of increased arterial stiffness in individuals≥65 years older was higher than that in people of 20-40 or 41-64 years old (x2 values were 677.30 and 347.26,respectively; both P＜0.01).For females of 20-40 or 41-46 years old,the prevalences of increased arterial stiffness in overweight and obese groups were higher than those in normal body weight group (both P＜0.01).In univariate analysis,age,resting heart rate,systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were correlated with arteriosclerosis (all P＜0.01).The odds ratio for the prevalence of arteriosclerosis in overweight women was 2.017 (95％ confidence interval (CI):1.637-2.486,P＜0.01) and that in obese women was 2.759 (95％ CI:1.964-3.876,P＜0.01) after adjustment for age,resting heart rate and blood pressure.The area under the ROC curve was 0.693 (95％ CI:0.671-0.715,P＜0.01) to evaluate arteriosclerosis in females and the optimal cut-off point for BMI was 23.42 kg/m2.Conclusions For females,overweight and obesity may be risk factors of arteriosclerosis.The optimal cut-off point for BMI to evaluate arteriosclerosis in women could be 23.42 kg/m2.