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How useful is waist circumference for assessment of abdominal obesity in Korean pre‐menopausal women during weight loss?
Author(s) -
Hwang MiJa,
Chung WonSeok,
Gallagher Dympna,
Kim DeogYoon,
Shin HyunDae,
Song MiYeon
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.879.4
Subject(s) - waist , medicine , anthropometry , waist to height ratio , body mass index , weight loss , obesity , circumference , abdominal obesity , waist–hip ratio , mathematics , geometry
Asian women are known to have a larger amount of abdominal fat (AF) for the same level of BMI compared with Caucasian and African‐American women. This study was aimed to determine whether waist circumference (WC) could be useful as an index of AF compared with AF measured by dual energy x‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) before and after a weight‐loss program in Asian women. Thirty‐eight healthy, pre‐menopausal obese Korean women (body fat percent > 30%) were enrolled and followed during a 6‐week weight‐loss program including herbal formula, calorie restriction, and exercise. Anthropometry and DXA measurements were performed before and after weight‐loss. A specific region of interest (ROI, L2‐iliac crest) by DXA was correlated with anthropometry at baseline: WC (γ= 0.91) > BMI (γ = 0.87) > Waist‐Height ratio (WHtR, γ = 0.82) > WHR (γ = 0.46); and after weight loss: BMI (γ = 0.88) > WC (γ = 0.84) > WHtR (γ = 0.82), all p < 0.01. The change in DXA ROI showed a reasonable correlation with change in anthropometry: BMI (γ = 0 .63, p < 0.01) > WC (γ = 0.39, p < 0.05) > WHtR (γ = 0.37, p < 0.05). A stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that 83% of the variance in DXA derived AF was explained by WC at baseline, WC and BMI at follow‐up, respectively. This study suggests that WC could be a good predictor of AF for Korean pre‐menopausal women both cross‐sectionally and longitudinally, and BMI could be useful in longitudinal studies. This study is supported by Kyung Hee University.