Waist Circumference Cutoff Points to Predict Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, and Cardiovascular Risk in Turkish Adults
Open accessAbstract
Objective. The waist circumference (WC) cutoff levels defined for the Caucasian people may not be representative for different ethnic groups. We determined sex specific WC cutoff points to predict obesity, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular risk in Turkish adults.Design and Methods. The demographic characteristics of 1898 adult males and 2308 nonpregnant females from 24 provinces of 7 different regions of Turkey (mean age 47 ± 14 yrs) were evaluated.Results. The WC levels of 90 cm and 100 cm define overweight and obese males while the levels of 80 cm and 90 cm define overweight and obese females. With these cutoff values, 239 additional males (12.6%) are diagnosed as overweight and 148 additional males (7.8%) as obese. Instead, 120 females (5.1%) are free of being labeled as obese.Conclusions. This is the first nationwide study to show the action levels of WC for overweight and obese Turkish adults. The ideal cutoff levels of WC to predict metabolic syndrome are 90 cm and 80 cm for Turkish adult men and women, respectively. These values are easy to implement and suggested to be used by the physicians dealing with cardiometabolic disorders in Turkey.
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Waist circumference is closely correlated with body mass index.
“WC is not only closely correlated with BMI [6]”
From Fully automated waist circumference measurement on abdominal CT: Comparison with manual measurements and potential value for identifying overweight and obesity as an adjunct output of CT scan (2021) · cites this paper as [6]
The Methods and Results describe waist-circumference cutoffs used to predict overweight and obesity, supporting a relationship with BMI-based categories. Our copy does not report a correlation between continuous WC and BMI values or establish how close that correlation is, so it does not fully support “closely correlated.” (LLM, conf=0.78)
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- Authors
- Sonmez, A., Bayram, F., Barcin, C., Ozsan, M., Kaya, A., & Gedik, V.
- Affiliations
- Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, School of Medicine, Gulhane Military Medical Academy, 06018 Etlik Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, School of Medicine, Erciyes University, Talas, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey
- Department of Cardiology, School of Medicine, Gulhane Military Medical Academy, 06018 Etlik Ankara, Turkey
- Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Nigde State Hospital, 51100 Nigde, Turkey
- Necmettin Erbakan University (TR)
- Ankara University (TR)
- Venue
- International Journal of Endocrinology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013
- Volume
- 2013
- Pages
- 1-7
- ISSN
- 1687-8337 (ISSN-L)
- 1687-8345
- PMC
- PMC3863488
- OpenAlex
- W2113166913
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 1.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- International Journal of Endocrinology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Niğde Üniversitesi Açık Erişim Sistemi (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism of Turkey
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Diabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and Lipoproteins
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Body Composition Measurement Techniques
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Keywords
- waist circumference, cut-off values, obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular risk, sex differences, ethnic differences, Turkish adults, overweight, cardiometabolic disease
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