Heupmaat
wellicht belangrijker dan BMI.*
Uit een Engelse studie blijkt weer eens dat de omvang van de heupen een belangrijke maat is voor het risico op hart- en vaatziektes. In deze studie werden ruim 24.500 mensen tussen de 45 en 80 jaar, nadat ze eerst allerlei belangrijke informatie m.b.t. risicofactoren verstrekt hadden, gemiddeld 9 jaren gevolgd. Een belangrijke risicofactor blijkt de taille/heup verhouding te zijn. Mannen met de hoogste taille/heup verhouding hadden naar verhouding 55% meer kans op hart- en vaatziekte, vrouwen met de hoogste taille/heup verhouding hadden zelfs 91% meer kans. (Uit eerder onderzoek is al gebleken dat een goede taille/heup verhouding voor mannen kleiner dan 0,90 en voor vrouwen kleiner dan 0,85 is.)
Abdominal fat distribution predicts heart risk
It's not just being fat that increases a person's risk of heart disease -- where that fat is stored is very important, a new study confirms.
Abdominal obesity, the study shows, is a strong independent risk factor for heart disease and the so-called waist-hip ratio is a better predictor of heart disease than waist circumference or body mass index (BMI) in relatively healthy men and women.
"The size of the hips seems to predict a protective effect," Dr. Dexter Canoy, of the University of Manchester in the UK, said in a statement. "In other words, a big waist with comparably big hips does not appear to be as worrisome as a big waist with small hips."
The finding is based on 24,509 men and women aged 45 to 79 years old who provided researchers with information on their weight, height, waist circumference, hip circumference and other heart disease risk factors from 1993 to 1997 and were then monitored for an average of 9 years.
During this time, 1708 men and 892 women developed heart disease. When Canoy and colleagues divided the men and women into five groups, according to waist-hip ratio, they found that those with the highest waist-to-hip ratio had the highest heart disease risk.
As the name implies, the waist-to-hip ratio is a calculation of a person's waist circumference divided by their hip circumference. People with a high ratio have an "apple-shaped body," whereas people with a low ratio have a "pear-shaped body."
Men with the biggest waists in relation to their hips had a 55 percent higher risk of developing heart disease compared to men with the smallest waists in relation to their hips.
Women with the biggest waists in relation to their hips were 91 percent more likely to develop heart disease than women with the smallest waists in relation to their hips.
Waist-only measurements underestimated heart disease risk by 10 percent to 18 percent when compared to risk estimates for waist measurements when hip is considered (waist-to-hip ratio), the researchers note.
Regardless of how fat is distributed, write Canoy and colleagues, "the challenge remains the same: to reduce the prevalence of obesity and prevent weight gain due to excess fat in the general population."
SOURCE: Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association
(Januari
2008)
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