Overlooking of Individuals with Cardiometabolic Risk by Evaluation of Obesity Using Waist Circumference and Body Mass Index in Middle-Aged Japanese Women

Abstract

Waist circumference is often used for the diagnosis of visceral obesity and metabolic syndrome. In Japan, obesity in women is defined by the government as a waist circumference of ≥90 cm and/or BMI of ≥25 kg/m2. However, there has been a controversy for almost two decades as to whether waist circumference and its above-optimal cutoff are appropriate for the diagnosis of obesity in health checkups. Instead of waist circumference, the waist-to-height ratio has been recommended for the diagnosis of visceral obesity. In this study, the relationships between the waist-to-height ratio and cardiometabolic risk factors, including diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia, were investigated in middle-aged Japanese women (35~60 years) who were diagnosed as not having obesity according to the above Japanese criteria of obesity. The percentage of subjects showing normal waist circumference and normal BMI was 78.2%, and about one-fifth of those subjects (16.6% of the overall subjects) showed a high waist-to-height ratio. In subjects with normal waist circumference and normal BMI, odds ratios of high vs. not high waist-to-height ratio for diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia were significantly higher than the reference level. A considerable proportion of women who have a high cardiometabolic risk might be overlooked at annual lifestyle health checkups in Japan.