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Waist
Circumference Can
Help Diagnose Disease
NEW YORK (Reuters
Health) - Determining who is at risk for diseases as serious as
type 2 diabetes may be as simple as measuring a patient's waist,
researchers report.
According
to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and
health departments in 10 countries, waist circumference and body
mass index (BMI)--a measure of a person's weight in relation to
their height--can identify health risks associated with overweight
and obesity.
``These are
simple, inexpensive and reliable tools for primary care doctors
to assess the state of their patients' health,'' Dr. Frank Vinicor,
director of the CDC's diabetes program, said in a prepared statement.
According
to a recent CDC report, the obesity boom of the 1990s may have
helped fuel a 33% increase in the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes
over the decade.
The current
recommendations, published in the January issue of the American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, are based on a review of studies
investigating the link between body measurements and disease.
The reviewers
found that people with similar waist circumferences had comparable
rates of type 2 diabetes regardless of age and that in women,
the rate of heart disease rose as both BMI and waist circumference
increased.
The authors,
Dr. Jaap C. Seidell from the National Institute of Public Health
and Environmental Protection in Bilthoven, the Netherlands, and
colleagues, recommend that primary care doctors use BMI and waist
circumference as tools to discuss prevention with their patients.
However, cutoff
points may vary among populations and ethnic groups, the researchers
note.
Previous research
has shown that people who develop excess weight in their abdomen,
or those with an ``apple-shaped'' body, have a higher risk of
certain chronic disorders than people who tend to gain weight
in their buttocks and thighs, or those who have ``pear-shaped''
bodies. Waist circumference can gauge a person's overall pattern
of weight gain.
BMI and waist
circumference ``relate to important health outcomes, are easy
and relatively inexpensive to measure, and are easy to monitor
over time by either the individuals themselves or their healthcare
providers,'' the authors conclude.
SOURCE:
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2001;73:123-126.
Reference
Source 89
For more information on prevention topics for
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