ABSTRACT
Abstract Background: Obesity is a public health problem and has been associated with the development of metabolic disorders that have a strong relationship with the onset of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Objective: The objective was to analyze the influence of abdominal obesity (AO) on systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) and on the lipid profile in cardiovascular risk stratification in adult women. Methods: Altogether, 91 women participated in the research. Lifestyle information was collected, in addition to the analysis of clinical measures of cardiovascular risk and biochemical parameters. Unpaired Student's t-test, logistic regression, and Pearson's correlation were performed for data analysis, with a value of p <0.05 considered significant. Results: The prevalence of AO was 62.6%. Logistic regression showed that AO increased the chance of developing SAH by 2.9-fold. The same behavior was observed in the TG/HDL-c lipid ratio (3.93 ± 0.3 vs. 2.16 ± 0.2), representing an 82% increase in obese women. The present study also demonstrated that the best anthropometric parameter to analyze cardiovascular risk in the studied population was the waist/height ratio (AUC = 0.707). Conclusions: It can therefore be concluded that AO plays a significant role in the development of SAH and changes in lipid values that predict increased cardiovascular risk, configuring a strong influence factor for CVD.