March 17, 2011 – Waist measurement would not be more accurate than body mass index (BMI) in predicting a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease over a 10-year period.
This is what emerges from a new synthesis1 bringing together 58 studies and involving more than 220,000 people from 17 countries. This conclusion calls into question other studies according to which there is a direct link between waist circumference and cardiovascular risk.
The new study evaluated participants’ waistlines and BMI over a 10-year period, and then established the risk of a heart attack or other cardiovascular event.
According to the researchers, when information about a patient’s blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol level is available, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio or BMI would not be more precise. to assess cardiovascular risk.
They believe that, regardless of its location, excess fat is synonymous with cardiovascular risk and that no bead is more dangerous than another.
A “questionable” assertion
This study must be interpreted with caution, according to Jean-Pierre Després, holder of the International Research Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk and Director of Cardiology Research at the Research Center of the University Institute of Cardiology and Pneumology of Quebec. .
“This is a colossal job, which brings new data: in a patient, when we have measured blood pressure, blood sugar and blood lipids and cholesterol levels, then the measurement of adiposity ( waist circumference or BMI) is not necessary, ”he agrees.
But he disagrees with the authors’ conclusion, who say that the waist-to-hip ratio rather than the BMI should not be used when assessing a patient’s cardiovascular risk.
“It’s a very questionable statement,” he said.
Because abdominal obesity (waist size greater than 88 cm in women and 102 cm in men) would indeed be a major cardiovascular risk factor.
“More than 25 years of work have shown the importance of the distribution of fat and visceral adiposity on cardiovascular risk. For a given BMI, a person with a very large waistline has a much higher cardiovascular risk than a person with a slimmer waistline. It would be wrong to tell doctors that the waist size of their patients does not matter, ”he adds.
In addition, abdominal obesity is often associated with the onset of diabetes, hypertension and hypertriglyceridemia. “We can treat these problems with drugs, but it makes more sense to act upstream by preventing obesity,” concludes Dr.r Després.
Marine Corniou – PasseportSanté.net
1. The Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, Separate and combined associations of body-mass index and abdominal adiposity with cardiovascular disease: collaborative analysis of 58 prospective studies, Lancet. 2011 Mar 10.
