Body shape index - a novel premature death risk factor

Abstract

The article covers the topic of stratifying risk factors for premature death associated with cardiovascular disease, such as gender, age, smoking, dyslipidemia, fasting serum glucose levels, target organ damage, obesity and others. Overweight and obesity are the main risk factors for death; according to the World Health Organization, about 3.4 million people in the World die each year due to overweight and obesity. Conventionally, body mass index is used as the standard international index, which characterizes the constitution to classify obesity. In assessing the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, the ratio of waist circumference to hip circumference is also determined. It is known that central obesity is more significant compared to body mass index change in predicting insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease risk. In addition, high body mass index values may falsely indicate obesity in individuals with increased muscle mass and/or «boned» skeleton. Currently, a new, improved index - body shape index is proposed as a tool to quantify the risk associated with abdominal obesity (the ratio between waist circumference, height and weight). Body shape index is transient indicator that can be easily calculated, and is a strict statistical indicator of the premature death risk, more informative than body mass index.