Criteria of obesity for Asian population. Literature review

Abstract

Scientific Centre for Family Health and Human Reproduction Problems (ul. Timiryazeva 16, Irkutsk 664003, Russian Federation) Problems of pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of obesity are actively discussed. The annual increase in the incidence requires improved approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and drug-free treatment of this pathological condition. Modern estimates of obesity ignore modern concepts of the heterogeneity of the disease, the role of visceral fat depots, metabolic phenotypes, and the individual cardiometabolic risk in a patient is not fully assessed. The prevalence of obesity is increasing among Asian adults due to rapid economic development and lifestyle. Obesity significantly elevates the risk of CVD (cardiovascular disease), diabetes, insulin resistance and other metabolic disorders. BMI is a widely used anthropometric index for measuring body fatness in clinical practice and epidemiological studies; Asian people are more likely to have a higher percentage of body fat at lower BMI and WC than Europeans, a number of researches were to determine the associations of BM1, waist circumference (WC) and waist-height ratio (WHtR) with CVD risk factors and to evaluate the optimal cut-offvalues to define overweight or obesity in Asian adults. In this review the major pathological factors connected to obesity are generalized. It has not been established which specific measures of obesity might be most appropriate for predicting CVD risk in Asians.

Keywords

• metabolic syndrome
• asian population
• waist circumference
• body mass index
• obesity
• risk factors
• cutoffs
• waist-height ratio