Associations of Obesity Measures with Metabolic Risk Factors in a Community-based Population in Japan

Background: The association of obesity measures (ie, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist-to hip ratio (WHR)) with metabolic risk factors in community-based populations has not been well studied.

Methods And Results: In the present study 759 men and 1,255 women aged between 30 and 79 years, without histories of stroke or coronary heart diseases, were dichotomized at the medians of BMI-WHR, WC-WHR and BMI-WC. The accumulation of 4 metabolic risk factors (risk _ sum) were examined: high blood pressure (> or =130/85 mmHg or on antihypertensive therapy); high triglycerides (> or =170 mg/dl); low high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (<40 mg/dl); and impaired glucose tolerance (hemoglobin A1c > or =5.6% or on antidiabetic therapy). BMI and WC correlated well in both men (r=0.871) and women (r=0.874). All 3 obesity measures related with the metabolic risk factors. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for BMI, WC and WHR to predict the risk _ sum > or =2 for men was 0.683, 0.709, and 0.700, respectively, and 0.715, 0.739, and 0.746, respectively, for women.

Conclusions: BMI may be used instead of WC if the latter is not available. When WC is measured, hip circumference also should be measured because the WHR may be the most valuable measure of obesity.