Associations between gender, age and waist circumference

Abstract

In December 2008, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a consultation to discuss cut-points for waist circumference (WC). As part of that effort, this paper examines the impact of gender and age on WC. As WC is influenced by body weight, body composition and fat distribution, their associations with gender and age were reviewed. We also noted the relationships with sex hormones, parity and menopause. We then summarized data on gender, age and WC. This presentation is not intended to be comprehensive, but to provide an overview of the available research. There are large differences in body composition in men and women, with women having more body fat. Fat distribution also differs with gender, with men having a relatively more central distribution of fat. These differences begin early in life and become more apparent in puberty due to changes in sex hormone levels. In both, men and women, waist and waist-to-hip ratio increase with age. A large portion of this increase is driven by gains in body weight, but the increases observed are larger than those that would be predicted from increases in the body mass index alone, and increases in WC are seen with aging in the absence of weight gain. The current practice of using seperate waist cut-points by gender is appropriate. Although WC increases with age, so does the risk of many chronic diseases. An evaluation of the need for age-specific waist cut-points in adults would need to consider disease risk.

Trunk and Lower Limb Fat Mass Evaluated by Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry in a 20- to 80-Year-Old Healthy Italian Population

“…Both the mean values and the percentile distributions indicate that peripheral fat deposits remain higher in women than in men at all ages. This probably relates to gender differences in body composition, and adipose tissue distribution in particular, attributable to the influence of sex steroid hormones [22]. This may be important because several studies have shown an association between leg fat deposits and glucose metabolism, lipid profiles, blood pressure, and risk factors for CVD [23,24].…”

“…Analyzing the percentile distribution showed that, for FM-tr, the 25th to 75th percentile range was higher in women than in men up to 30–39 years of age (being 3.3–9.6 kg for men in their thirties and 5.3–10.4 kg for women), while there were no substantial differences between the genders in older age. The differences in younger people may be related to the two genders’ physiological hormone profile since the FM-tr values became similar at around the age when women go into menopause, after which the hormone differences between the genders are less pronounced [22]. …”

Epidemiology of Abdominal Obesity

“…For example, a cross-sectional study with a sample of 617 women from southern Brazil observed that women with a history of three or more pregnancies and menarche at the age of 11 or earlier had a 25% higher prevalence of AO compared to nulliparous or primiparous women with menarche at 14 years or older [31]. Studies show that the number of parturitions leads to a tendency of decreased hip circumference and increased WC [37][38][39].…”

Conditions of Non-Unique Identifiers in Record Linkage Using Japanese Cohort Dataset

“…The research with dataset from the Japan Public Health Center Study, which includes a total of 65,095 Japanese aged between 40 and 69 years at baseline has shown that over 10-year follow-up, BMI increases less than 1.0 kg/m 2 among 40 -49 years old and decreases by a similar amount among those 55 and older at baseline [22] [23]. Besides, the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiologic Follow-up Study has shown mean 10-year change in BMI among men and women by age [24].…”