Thick Waist Predicts Blood Pressure Risk

A measuring tape seems to be a powerful tool for identifying people at risk of developing high blood pressure, researchers from Brazil report.

In a new study, people who were obese based on their waist circumference were most likely to develop high blood pressure during the next few years.

Obesity is well known to increase the risk of high blood pressure, but there is more than one way to measure obesity.

Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of weight in relation to height. A BMI from 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, and 30 and above is considered obese.

Another way to tell whether a person is overweight or obese is to measure waist circumference. The cut-off points for obesity are 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women, according to National Institutes of Health guidelines.

Despite the link between obesity and an increased risk of high blood pressure, it is uncertain whether BMI or waist circumference is a better tool for predicting how likely a person is to develop high blood pressure. Research has shown that some people with a normal BMI but a high waist circumference have an increased risk of high blood pressure.

A team led by Dr. Flavio D. Fuchs of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul compared the predictive powers of BMI and waist circumference in almost 600 Brazilians who did not have high blood pressure. During an average follow-up of more than 5 years, 127 people developed high blood pressure.

Based on BMI, obesity tended to predict the development of high blood pressure in women, but not in men.

But obesity based on waist circumference was an accurate predictor of future high blood pressure in both women and men, the researchers report in the January issue of the American Journal of Hypertension. The results in men were not quite statistically significant, but this might have been due to the small size of the study, according to the researchers.

"Considering its simplicity, waist circumference may provide more information about health risks and should be the preferential method to define obesity, particularly in relation to the prevention of," Fuchs's team concludes.

Although the cardiovascular risk of obesity sometimes declines with age, abdominal obesity - carrying extra pounds around the waist - is a persistent risk factor for heart disease. Abdominal obesity has also been linked to an increased risk of other health problems, including diabetes.

SOURCE: American Journal of Hypertension, January 2004.

Reference Source 98

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".