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Waist Circumference is Useless to Assess the Prevalence of Metabolic Abnormalities in Severely Obese Women

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Background

The present retrospective study aims to provide additional evidence supporting the fact that waist circumference, in severe obesity, is not a good clinical marker to identify individuals with the metabolic syndrome or an altered metabolic profile.

Methods

Relationships between waist circumference and metabolic profile of pre- (n = 165) and postmenopausal (n = 43) severely obese women were compared to associations observed in pre- (n = 52) and postmenopausal (n = 35) moderately obese women.

Results

Results showed that abdominal obesity assessed by waist circumference was more highly correlated with fasting glycemia, HDL-cholesterol and the cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol ratio in moderately than in severely obese women, before menopause. After menopause, waist circumference was not a valuable predictor of metabolic abnormalities in both groups. Moreover, when waist circumference was included as a criterion of the metabolic syndrome (as defined by the NCEP ATP III guidelines) in severely obese women, the prevalence of this metabolic condition was over-estimated by 72%.

Conclusion

These results emphasize the uselessness of waist circumference to assess the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome or an altered metabolic profile in severely obese women.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Kinesiology, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Laval University, Québec, Canada

    Vicky Drapeau, Angelo Tremblay & Pascale Mauriège

  2. Laval Hospital Research Center, Québec, Canada

    Vicky Drapeau, Isabelle Lemieux, Denis Richard, Angelo Tremblay & Pascale Mauriège

  3. Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Laval University, Québec, Canada

    Denis Richard

  4. Lipid Research Center, CHUL, Québec, Canada

    Jean Bergeron

  5. Department of Surgery, Laval Hospital, Québec, Canada

    Simon Biron & Picard Marceau

  6. Division of Kinesiology, Laval University, Ste-Foy, Québec, Canada, G1K 7P4

    Pascale Mauriège

Authors
  1. Vicky Drapeau
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  2. Isabelle Lemieux
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  3. Denis Richard
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  4. Jean Bergeron
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  5. Angelo Tremblay
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  6. Simon Biron
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  7. Picard Marceau
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  8. Pascale Mauriège
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pascale Mauriège.

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Drapeau, V., Lemieux, I., Richard, D. et al. Waist Circumference is Useless to Assess the Prevalence of Metabolic Abnormalities in Severely Obese Women. OBES SURG 17, 905–909 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-007-9168-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-007-9168-1

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