ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Abdominal obesity is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality associated with cardiovascular disease. It has been reported that metabolically obese is common even in normal weight individuals. In this study, we analysed characteristics of cardiovascular risk factors in normal and overweight men using waist- to -height ratio to find out whether it reflects such risks. METHOD: Study subjects were 510 men. (18.5or=0.5, Group 3; 25.0or=0.5. The prevalence, Odds ratio for cardiovascular risk factors were compared. RESULTS: In normal weight group, the prevalence of hypertension(P<0.01), high blood glucose(P<0.01), hypercholesterolemia (P<0.05), hypertrigtceridemia (P<0.01) was significantly higher in group 1 than group 2. In overweight group, the prevalence of hypercholesterolemia (P<0.01), low HDL(P<0.01) was significantly higher in group 4 than group 3. When compared odds ratio for each groups with reference to group 1, adjusted for age, smoking status and regular exercise, high blood glucose(4.48), hvpertrigtceridemia(5.91) in group 2,hyertension(3.54) ,hypertriglyceridemia (3.44) in group 3, hypertension(2.90), hypertriglyceridemia (3.81), low HDL(2.60) in group 4 were significantly higher. CONCLUSION: Waist-to-height ratio may be a useful method for early detection of abdominal obesity and it's related risk factors in normal and overweight individuals.