Waist circumference as a measure for indicating need for weight management

Abstract

Objective: To test the hypothesis that a single measurement, waist circumference, might be used to identify people at health risk both from being overweight and from having a central fat distribution.

Design: A community derived random sample of men and women and a second, validation sample.

Setting: North Glasgow.

Subject: 904 men and 1014 women (first sample); 86 men and 202 women (validation sample).

Main outcome measures: Waist circumference, body mass index, waist:hip ratio.

Results: Waist circumference > or = 94 cm for men and > or = 80 cm for women identified subjects with high body mass index (> or = 25 kg/m2) and those with lower body mass index but high waist:hip ratio (> or = 0.95 for men, > or = 0.80 women) with a sensitivity of > 96% and specificity > 97.5%. Waist circumference > or = 102 cm for men or > or = 88 cm for women identified subjects with body mass index > or = 30 and those with lower body mass index but high waist:hip ratio with a sensitivity of > 96% and specificity > 98%, with only about 2% of the sample being misclassified.

Conclusions: Waist circumference could be used in health promotion programmes to identify individuals who should seek and be offered weight management. Men with waist circumference > or = 94 cm and women with waist circumference > or = 80 cm should gain no further weight; men with waist circumference > or = 102 cm and women with waist circumference > or = 88 cm should reduce their weight.