ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Obesity is a risk factor for developing hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular diseases. Various diagnostic methods and criteria of obesity have been developed. The predictive values of health risk factors(hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and body fatness) were different for cardiovascular diseases. We reviewed the medical records to assess the relation of health risk factors to waist-hip ratio(WHR) and body mass index (BMI). METHODS: We gathered 5100 cases who have taken medical examination from March 1995 to February 1996 at Ajou University Hospital and measured BMI, WHR, body fat, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood sugar etc.. Except 1350 abnormal cases on current illness and laboratory study, 3750 healthy cases were analysed. First we divided the healthy cases into obese and non-obese group according to BMI 25kg/m2 in men and women. And then, the obese and non-obese group was divided into central and non-central obese type by WHR 0.8 in women and 0.9 in men. RESULTS: Except only diastolic blood pressure in male, other lab data such as body fat, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting blood sugar in male and female were significantly different between the two groups divided by WHR in BMI_0.9. Women had higher(P_0.8. CONCLUSIONS: We thought that the increase of WHR was risk factor for hyperlipidemia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus in men and women when BMI was less than 25kg/m2. In obese group(BMI>_225kg/m2), increase of WHR was risk factor for hyperlipidemia in men and hyperlipidemia and hypertension in women.