Obesity prevalence and accuracy of BMI-defined obesity in Russian firefighters.
BACKGROUND
No data exist on obesity or the accuracy of body mass index (BMI) in Russian Federation firefighters.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of obesity and rates of misclassification of BMI-based obesity status.


METHODS
Career firefighters in the Moscow region completed anthropometric assessments including height, weight, BMI, body fat per cent (BF%) and waist circumference (WC). Using these three methods, we defined obesity as BMI ≥30, BF% >25 and WC >102, respectively.


RESULTS
The study group consisted of 167 male firefighters. Obesity prevalence was 22% for BMI [95% confidence interval (CI) 16.9-28.5], 60% for BF% (95% CI 52.5-67.3) and 28% for WC (95% CI 21.3-34.9). False positive rates for BMI-based obesity status were low, with 3% (95% CI -1.1 to 7.1) and 6% (95% CI 1.6-9.9) of non-obese participants defined by BF% and WC standards misidentified as obese using BMI. However, 65% (95% CI 55.7-77.4) of BF%-defined obese participants and 36% (95% CI 22.5-49.9) of WC-defined obese participants were misclassified as non-obese using BMI (i.e. false negatives).


CONCLUSIONS
Rates of BMI-based obesity in Russian male firefighters were similar to that of males in the general Russian adult male population. Compared with BF% or WC standards, BMI-based obesity classi- fication produced low rates of false positives but demonstrated high rates of false negatives.
Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry (MSUMD), Delegatskay ulitsa, 20/1, 127473 Moscow, Russian Federation.
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Gurevich
Center for Fire Rescue and EMS Health Research, Institute for Biobehavioral Health Research, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 1920 West 143rd Street, Suite 120, Leawood, KS 66224, USA.
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Poston
Center for Fire Rescue and EMS Health Research, Institute for Biobehavioral Health Research, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 1920 West 143rd Street, Suite 120, Leawood, KS 66224, USA.
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Anders
Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry (MSUMD), Delegatskay ulitsa, 20/1, 127473 Moscow, Russian Federation.
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Ivkina
Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry (MSUMD), Delegatskay ulitsa, 20/1, 127473 Moscow, Russian Federation.
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Archangelskaya
Center for Fire Rescue and EMS Health Research, Institute for Biobehavioral Health Research, National Development and Research Institutes, Inc., 1920 West 143rd Street, Suite 120, Leawood, KS 66224, USA, jitnarin@ndri.org.
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Jitnarin
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal Research Institute for Health Organization and Informatics, Dobrolyubov Street, 11, 127254 Moscow, Russian Federation.
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Starodubov
D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D061388:Firefighters / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009031:Moscow / Q000453:epidemiology; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D055105:Waist Circumference
BMI; Russia; body fat; firefighters; obesity; waist circumference.