This emerges from a new synthesis of 58 studies involving more than 220 000 people from 17 countries. This finding calls into question other research that there is a direct link between waist circumference and cardiovascular risk.
The new study evaluated over a period of 10 years, waist circumference and BMI of participants, and then determine the risk of heart attack or other cardiovascular event.
According to researchers, when you have information about the blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol of a patient, waist circumference, waist-hip ratio or BMI would not provide more precise to assess cardiovascular risk.
They believe that regardless of its location, excess fat is synonymous with cardiovascular risk and no bead is more dangerous than another.
A statement "questionable"
This study should be interpreted with caution, according to Jean-Pierre Despres, who holds the Canada Research Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk International and director of cardiology research at the Research Centre of the University Institute of Cardiology and Pneumology Quebec ."This is a colossal work, which provides new data: a patient, when measured blood pressure, blood sugar and blood lipids and cholesterol, then the measure of adiposity ( waist circumference or BMI) is not necessary, "he agrees.
But it disagrees with the conclusion of the authors, who say there is no need to use the waist-hip ratio instead of BMI in assessing the cardiovascular risk of a patient.
"This is a highly questionable assertion," Judge said.
Because the obesity abdominal (waist circumference greater than 88 cm in women and 102 cm for men) is indeed a major cardiovascular risk factor.
"More than 25 years of work showed the importance of fat distribution and visceral adiposity on cardiovascular risk. For a given BMI, the person who has a very wide waist has a much higher cardiovascular risk than that which has a thinner waistline. It would be wrong to tell doctors that the waist of their patients did not matter, "he adds.
In addition, abdominal obesity is often associated with the onset of diabetes , the hypertension and thehypertriglyceridemia . "We can treat these problems with drugs, but it makes more sense to be proactive in preventing obesity," says Dr. Despres.
