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[Preprint]. 2023 Dec 11:2023.12.10.23299756.
doi: 10.1101/2023.12.10.23299756.

Sex differences in the secular change in waist circumference relative to body mass index in the Americas and England from 1997 to 2020

Luz M Sánchez-Romero  1 , Janine Sagaceta-Mejía  2 , Jennifer S Mindell  3 , Álvaro Passi-Solar  3 , Antonio Bernabé-Ortiz  4 , Lizbeth Tolentino-Mayo  2 , Alison Moody  3 , Shaun Scholes  3
Affiliations

Sex differences in the secular change in waist circumference relative to body mass index in the Americas and England from 1997 to 2020

Luz M Sánchez-Romero et al. medRxiv. .

Update in

Abstract

Objective: To quantify changes over time in waist circumference (WC) relative to body mass index (BMI) by sex in the Americas (United States of America, Mexico, Chile, Peru) and England.

Methods: Data from adults aged 25-64 years between 1997 and 2020 was analysed; US data was stratified by racial-ethnic groups. Sex-specific BMI and WC means, and obesity and abdominal obesity prevalence, were compared between the first and last surveys. Using data from all survey years, secular changes across the BMI and WC distributions were estimated applying quantile regression models. BMI was added as a predictor of WC to estimate secular changes in WC relative to BMI. Interaction terms were included in all models to evaluate differences by sex.

Results: BMI and WC (except Peru) showed larger secular increases at the upper-tails of the distributions in both sexes. Increases at the 50th and 75th WC centiles relative to BMI were more pronounced in women than in men, with larger increases in US non-Hispanic whites and in England. In men, increases in WC independently of BMI were most evident in Mexico.

Conclusions: Disease risk associated with visceral fat, is potentially underestimated by national surveillance efforts that quantify secular changes only in BMI.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Estimated secular change (2003 to 2017) in mean WC and at various centiles of the WC distribution relative to BMI at 25, 30 and 35kg/m2 by sex in Chile
Figure 2
Figure 2
Estimated secular change (2006 to 2018) in mean WC and at various centiles of the WC distribution relative to BMI at 25, 30 and 35kg/m2 by sex in Mexico
Figure 3
Figure 3
Estimated secular change (2018 to 2020) in mean WC and at various centiles of the WC distribution relative to BMI at 25, 30 and 35kg/m2 by sex in Peru
Figure 4
Figure 4
Estimated secular change (1999–2002 to 2015–18) in mean WC and at various centiles of the WC distribution relative to BMI at 25, 30 and 35kg/m2 by sex and racial-ethnic group in the US
Figure 5
Figure 5
Estimated secular change (1999 to 2017) in mean WC and at various centiles of the WC distribution relative to BMI at 25, 30 and 35kg/m2 by sex in England
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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