[Odds ratio on cardiovascular risk factors of obesity defined by waist and body mass index].

OBJECTIVE

To compare the odds ratio of waist circumference (WC) and/or body mass index (BMI) on cardiovascular risk factors.

METHODS

Data on a cross-sectional study involving 41 087 adults (19 567 male, 21 520 female) from the 2002 China National Nutrition and Health Survey were examined. According to the obesity definition of the Chinese Working Group on Obesity for Children (WGOC) (BMI, 24 and 28 kg/m(2); WC, male 85 cm, female 80 cm), the study population were divided into 9 groups. The prevalence and odds ratio (OR) of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors were compared among these 9 groups. Variation and standard β were indexes being used to compare the likelihood of BMI and/or WC on CVD risk factors.

RESULTS

Within each of the BMI categories, with few exceptions, indices levels on CVD risk factors were significantly increased (decreased for HDL-C levels) with the increase of WC, and vice versa. After adjusting the effects of age, sex, income, education, sedentary activity and dietary factors, the ORs of hypertension in adults with higher WC within each of the BMI categories were higher than adults with lower WC, and the ORs of hypertension in adults with higher BMI within each of the WC categories were higher than adults with lower BMI. Similar trends were found for high fast plasma glucose (FPG) and dyslipidemia. The variation in CVD risk factors explained only by WC and BMI were quite similar, but slightly larger when combined WC with BMI. Standard β was higher on BMI when predicting systolic BP and was higher on WC when predicting TG, TC and HDL-C.

CONCLUSION

BMI and WC were independently associated with the risk factors on CVD. To combine the BMI and WC, the results could accurately evaluate the risk of CVD, thus to provide substantive evidence that the WGOC cutoff points for the WC might help in identifying those population under increased risk.