Appropriate waist circumference cutoff points for central obesity in Korean adults☆
Received 9 March 2006; accepted 24 April 2006. published online 30 May 2006.
Abstract
Background
The International Diabetes Federation consensus recently proposed a new definition for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, incorporating ethnically specific waist circumference (WC) cutoff points.
Objective
We investigated the ethnically appropriate WC cutoff values for central obesity in Korean adults to predict increased risk of elevated triacylglycerol, reduced HDL cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, elevated fasting plasma glucose, or two or more of these factors.
Design
We used data from 6561 adults, aged 20–80 years, who participated in the Korean Health and Nutritional Examination Survey of 1998, a cross-sectional health survey of a nationally representative sample of Koreans.
Results
Based on the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the WC value for predicting metabolic risk factors in Koreans was about 85cm for men and 80cm for women. The odds ratio for the risk of two or more metabolic risk factors increased abruptly in men with WC≥90cm and women with WC≥85cm. The 80th percentile for WC in the Korean population was 90cm for men and 86.5cm for women. Thus, the appropriate WC cutoff point for central obesity in Koreans was determined to be 90cm for men and 85cm for women.
Conclusions
Based on our criteria, the prevalence of central obesity was 19.8% in Korean men and 24.5% in Korean women. These findings suggest the applicability of ethnically specific cutoff points for WC in assessing central obesity.
aDepartment of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, Pusan University, Pusan, Republic of Korea
bDepartment of Family Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
cDepartment of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Republic of Korea
dDepartment of Family Medicine, Eulji General Hospital, Eulji Medical University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
eDepartment of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
fGurogu Public Health Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea
gDepartment of Family Medicine, Eastern Municipal Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea
hDepartment of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
iDepartment of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
jDepartment of Endocrinology and Metabolism, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
kDepartment of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chunchon, Republic of Korea
Corresponding author at: Department of Family Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 388-1 Poongnap-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul 138-736, South Korea. Tel.: +82 2 3010 3813; fax: +82 2 3010 3815.
☆ This study was supported by a grant from the Korean Society for the Study of Obesity 2005.
ABSTRACT