Redefining Obesity
Reported November 4, 2005
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — New research shows there’s more than meets the waist when it comes to predicting someone’s risk for a heart attack.
Researchers from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada studied body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, waist measure and hip measure in more than 27,000 people from 52 countries. Previous studies show obesity increases the risk of heart disease, but these researchers wanted to know if there were other factors that increased the risk of heart disease even more. They simply wondered if body mass index was indeed the strongest predictor of heart attack in different ethnic populations.
Of the 27,000 people in the study, half had already had a heart attack, while the other half served as age and sex-matched controls who had not had a heart attack. Surprisingly, researchers found body mass index was only slightly higher among people who had suffered a heart attack than in those who had not. Those who had a previous heart attack, however, had significantly higher waist-to-hip ratios than those in the non-heart attack group. Researchers say this stayed consistent in men and women of all ages from all regions of the world.
Authors of the study found waist-to-hip ration is three times stronger than body mass index in predicting someone’s risk of a heart attack. A larger waist size was harmful, while a larger hip size was protective.
Lead researcher Salim Yusuf, from McMaster University, says, “Our findings suggest that substantial reassessment is needed of the importance of obesity for cardiovascular disease in most regions of the world.”
SOURCE: The Lancet, 2005;366:1640-1649