Association of waist and hip circumference with 12-year progression of carotid intima-media thickness in elderly women

Abstract

Objective: To test the hypothesis that waist and hip circumferences together provide additional information on the progression of preclinical atherosclerosis beyond either of them alone in elderly women. Design: A 12-year follow-up study. Subjects: A population-based sample of 102 women 60-70 years of age at baseline. Measurements: Waist and hip circumferences and body mass index (BMI) were assessed and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) was quantified noninvasively by ultrasonography.Results: There was a significant increase in the 12-year carotid IMT progression across the thirds of waist circumference (0.080, 0.277, 0.279 mm, P ¼ 0.02 for difference) and hip circumference (0.030, 0.342, 0.260 mm, P ¼ 0.001 for difference) adjusted for conventional risk factors (age, smoking, systolic blood pressure, serum low-density lipoprotein and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, blood glucose). The association of waist circumference with IMT progression was not significant after further adjustment for hip circumference or BMI. Further adjustment for waist circumference and BMI did not change the association of hip circumference with IMT progression. The IMT progression was greatest in women with waist circumference 483 cm and hip circumference p98 cm adjusted for conventional risk factors (P ¼ 0.003 for interaction). Conclusion: Not only waist circumference but also hip circumference is associated with the progression of carotid atherosclerosis during 12 years in elderly women. Women with both a larger waist circumference and a smaller hip circumference had the greatest progression of carotid atherosclerosis.

Increased Levels of Inflammation among Women with Enlarged Waist and Elevated Triglyceride Concentrations

“…Although anthropometric measures are clinically useful tools, their accuracy or sensitivity for prediction of metabolic abnormalities can be improved by joint use of these indicators with a biochemical marker [15,20] . Among anthropometric measures, the usefulness of WC has mostly been studied in different ethnic groups in the world [38][39][40] , even among women from the Middle East [41] -a group shown to be at particularly high risk of CVD [42] . Among biochemical markers, plasma TG levels have been introduced as an independent predictor of CVD in prospective studies [43] .…”

Subclinical Atherosclerosis and Metabolic Risk: Role of Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference

“…Higher IMT has been shown to be associated with both elevated BMI and WC, 6,[14][15][16][17][18] although this relationship is not always significant. 7,[19][20][21] Possible reasons for this inconsistency may be due to the influences of existing chronic disease, insulin resistance, or cardiometabolic risk on both IMT and the surrogate measures of adiposity.…”

Anthropometric measurements of Australian Aboriginal adults living in remote areas: Comparison with nationally representative findings

“…Broad waist and narrow hip circumferences are associated with adverse health outcomes (Hassinen et al, 2007;Heitmann et al, 1997;Lissner et al, 2001;Seidell et al, 1997). An excess of central fat that accompanies increasing weight gain in all populations is associated with insulin resistance, higher blood pressures, dyslipidaemia, albuminuria, higher levels of inflammatory markers, and a predisposition to diabetes, cardiovascular risk, and renal disease (Baron, 2007;Flier and Maratos-Flier, 2005).…”