Thick Waist Predicts Blood Pressure Risk: Study

In a new study, people who were obese based on their waist circumference
were most likely to develop high blood pressure during the next few years.

Obesity is well known to increase the risk of high blood pressure, but there
is more than one way to measure obesity.

Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of weight in relation to height. A BMI
from 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, and 30 and above is considered
obese.

Another way to tell whether a person is overweight or obese is to measure
waist circumference. The cut-off points for obesity are 40 inches for men
and 35 inches for women, according to National Institutes of Health (news -
web sites) guidelines.

Despite the link between obesity and an increased risk of high blood
pressure, it is uncertain whether BMI or waist circumference is a better
tool for predicting how likely a person is to develop high blood pressure.
Research has shown that some people with a normal BMI but a high waist
circumference have an increased risk of high blood pressure.

A team led by Dr. Flavio D. Fuchs of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande
do Sul compared the predictive powers of BMI and waist circumference in
almost 600 Brazilians who did not have high blood pressure. During an
average follow-up of more than 5 years, 127 people developed high blood
pressure.

Based on BMI, obesity tended to predict the development of high blood
pressure in women, but not in men.

But obesity based on waist circumference was an accurate predictor of future
high blood pressure in both women and men, the researchers report in the
January issue of the American Journal of Hypertension. The results in men
were not quite statistically significant, but this might have been due to
the small size of the study, according to the researchers.

"Considering its simplicity, waist circumference may provide more
information about health risks and should be the preferential method to
define obesity, particularly in relation to the prevention of," Fuchs's team
concludes.

Although the cardiovascular risk of obesity sometimes declines with age,
abdominal obesity - carrying extra pounds around the waist - is a persistent
risk factor for heart disease. Abdominal obesity has also been linked to an
increased risk of other health problems, including diabetes.

SOURCE: American Journal of Hypertension, January 2004.