High blood pressure, high serum lipids and impaired glucose tolerance are risk factors of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Smoking, malnutrition and sedentary life increase the occurrence of these risk factors. Obesity is defined as accumulation of fat more than the desired level. Body mass index (BKI), waist circumference (WC) and waist hip ratio (WHR) are the anthropometric measurements that are widely used for defining obesity. The aim of this paper is to present evidence on which anthropometric measurement must be chosen to estimate deaths from cardiovascular diseases, cardiovascular events and diabetes. For this purpose large population based studies were evaluated and their findings were discussed. According to the results of these studies it is recommended that if there is enough time and equipment, BMI and one of the abdominal measurements (WC or WHR) should be evaluated together for a better estimation.
Key words: Obesity, BMI, waist circumference, waist hip ratio, cardiovascular risk, diabetes Article Language: Turkish English
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