title: How useful is waist circumference for assessment of abdominal obesity in Korean pre-menopausal women during weight loss?
abstract: 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 (gamma=0.91)>BMI (gamma=0.87)>Waist-Height ratio (WHtR, gamma=0.82)>WHR (gamma=0.46); and after weight loss: BMI (gamma=0.88)>WC (gamma=0.84)>WHtR (gamma=0.82), all p<0.01. The change in DXA ROI showed a reasonable correlation with change in anthropometry: BMI (gamma=0.63, p<0.01)>WC (gamma=0.39, p<0.05)>WHtR (gamma=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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oriental Rehabilitation Medicine, College of Oriental Medicine, KyungHee University, 1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Mi-Ja
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Won-Suk
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Dympna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gallagher
authors.forename: Deog-Yoon
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyun-Dae
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Mi-Yeon
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D050153:Abdominal Fat / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004038:Diet, Reducing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D017697:Premenopause; D055105:Waist Circumference; D015431:Weight Loss / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult