title: Differences in anthropometric measures in immigrants and Swedish-born individuals: results from two community-based cohort studies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study differences in body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), waist circumference (WC), sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD), waist-hip-height ratio (WHHR) and percent body fat in immigrants and Swedish-born men and women in two large population-based samples.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional analysis of 60-year-old individuals, n=4 232. To replicate the results, we also assessed another large independent cohort cross-sectionally, the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study (MDC, n=26 777). The data from both cohorts were collected in the 1990s in Sweden.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant differences between Finnish-born, Middle Eastern and women from the rest of the world were seen for all anthropometric measures, using Swedish-born women as referent. However, WHHR was the only anthropometric measure that identified all these three groups of immigrant women as different from Swedish-born women with high statistical certainty (p<0.001). Apart from WHHR that identified differences in anthropometry in all immigrant groups of men using Swedish-born men as referent, few significant differences were seen in anthropometry among groups of immigrant men. These finding were observed in both cohorts, and remained after adjustments for smoking, physical activity and educational level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study confirms previous findings of more obesity among immigrants and is the first to report that WHHR measurements may detect anthropometric differences between different ethnic groups better than other anthropometrical measures.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Family Medicine, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden; Department of Medical Sciences, Molecular Epidemiology and Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: axelcefam@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Axel C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Carlsson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Family Medicine, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden.
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wändell
authors.affiliation: Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Riserus
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Sciences, Molecular Epidemiology and Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; School of Health and Social Studies, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden.
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ärnlöv
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Borné
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Engström
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Leander
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Bruna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gigante
authors.affiliation: Cardiology Unit, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Mai-Lis
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Hellénius
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Cardiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: de Faire
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000886:Anthropometry; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015331:Cohort Studies; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio
keywords: Body mass index (BMI); Ethnic differences; Low resource settings; Obesity; Waist–hip ratio (WHR); Waist–hip–height ratio (WHHR)