A large scale study involving about 360,000 participants, conducted by research institutions across Europe has found that those with a large waist had twice the risk of premature death even if they were not overweight.
The study ran for 9.7 years and researchers found that BMI, waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio were all strongly associated with the risk of death. They said the findings suggested that "general adiposity (fat) and abdominal adiposity are associated with the risk of death and support the use of waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio in addition to BMI in assessing the risk of death".
The European co-ordinator of the study said people with large waist should exercise every day, avoid alcohol and improve their diet.
Source: "General and Abdominal Adiposity and Risk of Death in Europe" NEJM 359(20):2105-2120 (November 13, 2008) free f/t
No comments:
Post a Comment