title: Gender variations in waist circumference levels between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australian populations: a systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare gender-specific waist circumference (WC) levels of Aboriginal Australians with non-Aboriginal Australians.
  
  
  METHODS
  A systematic search on Medline, PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar databases was conducted to identify papers that reported gender-specific waist circumference (WC) estimates of participants from the age of 15 years and above among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Means and their 95% confidence intervals of gender differences in WC, height and weight were recorded or calculated where they were not provided. Gender-specific WC, height and weight mean estimates were pooled and the I(2) statistic was used to test heterogeneity among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 17 selected cross-sectional studies, 9 focused on Aboriginal and 8 on non-Aboriginal Australians. Seven studies reported significantly higher WC estimates among indigenous females than males. On the other hand, non-indigenous males had significantly higher WC levels than females. Males had greater height and weight estimates than females in both groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although indigenous women were shorter and had lower weight estimates, they had greater WC levels than indigenous men. This is the first systematic review to assess the gender-specific differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. The findings of this review warrant more efforts to understand and reduce the high prevalence of central obesity and related chronic diseases among Aboriginal women.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Chronic Disease, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: o.adegbija@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Odewumi Oluwarotimi
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Adegbija
authors.affiliation: Centre for Chronic Disease, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D055105:Waist Circumference / Q000208:ethnology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aboriginals; Meta-analysis; Non-Aboriginals; Systematic review; Waist circumference