Central obesity and beer consumption

Abstract

Central obesity is the accumulation of fat in the abdominal region, and is a marker for Metabolic Syndrome. Since beer is a popular drink in Romania, we searched for eventual connection between beer consumption and waist circumference (WC). We carried out a transversal semi-quantitative study targeting the adult population of Romania. The relations between WC, WHR (waist hip ratio) and beer consumption were variable and non-linear. Regressions for WC and WHR did not bring statistically significant coefficients, showing that there is no significant link between beer consumption and WC or WHR. We could conclude that beer ingestion by itself is not associated with a higher prevalence of abdominal obesity.