BMI and waist circumference
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 - 08:42
in Health & Medicine
Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference are well known risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), but a new study reported in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation today now concludes that these risk factors, when accurately measured by trained staff, can actually predict the risk of fatal and non-fatal disease. The findings, which emerged from a large prospective study of more than 20,000 Dutch men and women aged 20-65 years begun in 1993, show that the associations of BMI and waist circumference with heart disease are equally strong, and explain one half of all fatal and one quarter of non-fatal CVD in those who are overweight and obese.