AsianScientist (Jan. 27, 2012) – An international research team of researchers has for the first time demonstrated that the effect of obesity on the risk of premature death is seriously underestimated unless a person’s hip circumference is taken into account.
The study, published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, is the first ever to link obesity to mortality in a South Asian population, by looking at the relationship between waist and hip circumference in a 20-year study of almost 8,000 Mauritians.
Good evidence now exists to show that the fat tissue in the hip has quite different metabolic properties in comparison with fat tissue around the waist.
Higher hip circumference – unlike waist circumference – is in fact protective against metabolic disorders such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease and can also reflect greater muscle mass.
“We knew that higher hip circumference was protective against metabolic diseases such as diabetes as well as death. However, we did not know that taking waist and hip circumference into account would reveal such a powerful association between obesity and mortality,” said lead author Dr. Adrian Cameron from Deakin University.
Typically, waist-to-hip ratio and waist circumference are used by doctors as a reference for obesity. Here, the researchers studied how hip circumference independently influenced obesity and mortality, allowing them to isolate the negative health risks of central (abdominal) obesity which is measured by the waist circumference.
“I think we all need to realize that the waist circumference is only half the story when it comes to obesity,” said Professor Paul Zimmet, Director Emeritus and Director International Research at Baker IDI, who initiated the Mauritius study almost 25 years ago.
“Hip circumference is clearly just as important and when we consider them both, that’s when we see just how dangerous obesity really is,” he mused.
The article can be found at: Cameron AJ et al. (2012) The influence of hip circumference on the relationship between abdominal obesity and mortality.
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Source: Deakin University.
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