Do people with similar waist circumference share similar health risks irrespective of height?

Abstract

In order to know whether people of similar waist circumference having similar health risks irrespective of height, comparisons of odds ratios for coronary risk factors and fatty liver by echogram were made between the subjects from the first (short, ≦ 164.5 cm) and fourth quartiles (tall, ≧ 172.4 cm) of height from both the third (84.5∼<89 cm) and fourth (≥ 89 cm) quartiles of waist circumference from 3117 men (ranging 35-64 years old) who underwent routine health examinations in Tokyo. After adjusting for age, and with tall subjects in the same waist circumference category as reference, the odds ratios were significantly higher for the short people from the third quartile of waist circumference for the risk of hypertension (1.62, 95% CI 1.002-2.63), hyperglycemia (3.34, 1.27-9.95) and fatty liver (2.12, 1.30-3.50). However, there were no significant differences in odds ratios of any risk health risks between short people and tall people from the fourth quartile of waist circumference. Although people of prominently large waist circumferences may have similar health risks of the above items irrespective of height, short people have higher health risks than tall people in the moderately large waist circumference population of Japanese men. © 1999 Tohoku University Medical Press.