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Waist circumference as a measure for indicating need for weight management

^a Department of Human Nutrition, University of Glasgow, Royal Infirmary, Glasgow G31 2ER, ^b Department of Public Health, University of Glasgow

Correspondence and reprint requests to: Professor Lean.

Abstract

Objective: To test the hypothesis that a single measurement, waist circumference, might be used to identify people at health risk both from being overweight and from having a central fat distribution.
Design: A community derived random sample of men and women and a second, validation sample.
Setting: North Glasgow.
Subjects: 904 men and 1014 women (first sample); 86 men and 202 women (validation sample).
Main outcome measures: Waist circumference, body mass index, waist:hip ratio.
Results: Waist circumference >/=94 cm for men and >/=80 cm for women identified subjects with high body mass index (>/=25 kg/m²) and those with lower body mass index but high waist:hip ratio (>/=0.95 for men, >/=0.80 women) with a sensitivity of >96% and specificity >97.5%. Waist circumference >/=102 cm for men or >/=88 cm for women identified subjects with body mass index >/=30 and those with lower body mass index but high waist:hip ratio with a sensitivity of >96% and specificity >98%, with only about 2% of the sample being misclassified.
Conclusions: Waist circumference could be used in health promotion programmes to identify individuals who should seek and be offered weight management. Men with waist circumference >/=94 cm and women with waist circumference >/=80 cm should gain no further weight; men with waist circumference >/=102 cm and women with waist circumference >/=88 cm should reduce their weight.

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