Increased waist circumference and prevalence of type 2 diabetes and hypertension in Chinese adults.
A rising worldwide prevalence of chronic disease, manifested primarily as hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), has been well documented. Both hypertension and T2DM are associated with obesity. Obesity is often measured by body mass index (BMI). Across the entire range of BMI, the risk of hypertension and T2DM increases, making a higher BMI a strong predictor of hypertension and T2DM. BMI is a general indicator of overt obesity, but does not give information about the distribution of obesity. Central obesity, often assessed through waist circumference (WC), is also strongly correlated with T2DM in European and Asian adults.
The objective is to evaluate the changes in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) and their associations with the prevalence of hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Chinese adults.
WC, recorded to the nearest 0.1 cm, was taken with a cloth tape and was measured on bare skin at the midline between the lower border of the ribs and the iliac crest in the horizontal plane after a normal expiration. Two measurements were taken and the mean of the replicates was used in the following analyses. This study describes the potential association of central obesity with an upward trend of T2DM > from Ruan et al., BMJ Open 3 (2013) e003408. All rights reserved to BMJ.
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