Anthropometric measures as predictors of cardiovascular disease risk factors in the urban population of Iran.
BACKGROUND
Overweight and obesity are an important public health problem in society, due to their association with various chronic diseases.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and distribution of overweight and obesity, using different anthropometric measurements and to identify the best anthropometric indicator which is most closely related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in an Iranian urban population.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted with 991 men and 1188 women aged 15 to 64 years. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and percentage of body fat were measured. A fasting blood specimen was obtained. CVD risk factors, including fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol (Tchol), low-density (LDL-C) and high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were assessed.


RESULTS
Based on BMI, more than 49% of men and 53% of women were either overweight or obese with 10.2% of men and 18.6% of women being obese. In both men and women, the prevalence of overweight was greater among 40-49 year olds and the prevalence of obesity was greater among those 50+ years. Using the multiple regression analysis, BMI, WHtR and WHR explained the highest percentage of variation of triglycerides, Tchol/HDL-C ratio and LDL-C in men, respectively, whereas WHR explained the highest percentage of variation of triglycerides and WC explained the highest percentage of variation of Tchol/HDL-C ratio and LDL-C in women.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data indicated that WHR and WHtR were the anthropometric indicators that best predicted CVD risk factors in men and WHR and WC in women.
Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University1, Tehran, Iran. ghara_re@modares.ac.ir
Reza
R
Gharakhanlou
Babak
B
Farzad
Hamid
H
Agha-Alinejad
Lyn M
LM
Steffen
Mahdi
M
Bayati
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055105:Waist Circumference; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio; D055815:Young Adult
D008055:Lipids