Association between visceral fat area and waist circumference measured at different sites

Abstract

In 4,019 subjects (2,273 males and 1,746 females), we measured the visceral fat area and waist circumference (WC) at three sites: the umbilical level, the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and that recommended by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP). The association between the visceral fat area and WC measured at each site was evaluated. Correlations were observed between the visceral fat area and WC measured at each site, for the umbilical WC, with r2 = 0.542 (p < 0.0001) in males and r2 = 0.548 (p < 0.0001) in females; for the WHO WC, r2 = 0.566 (p < 0.0001) in males and r2 = 0.554 (p < 0.0001) in females; and for the NCEP WC, r2 = 0.424 (p < 0.0001) in males and r2 = 0.466 (p < 0.0001) in females. Thus, the visceral fat area was strongly correlated with the umbilical as well as WHO WC, but less strongly with the NCEP WC. Evaluation of the correlation between the umbilical WC and WHO as well as NCEP WC revealed r2 = 0.945 (p < 0.0001) in males and r2 = 0.830 (p < 0.0001) in females for the WHO WC; and r2 = 0.829 (p < 0.0001) in males and r2 = 0.800 (p < 0.0001) in females for the NCEP WC. The umbilical WC was more strongly correlated with the WHO than with the NCEP WC, and, therefore, may be convertible to the WHO WC.