Trends in Waist Circumference and Central Obesity in Adults, Northern Iran

Abstract

Objectives: The main aim of this study is to determine the centralobesity trends during the period from 2006 to 2010 among 15-65years old people in Northern Iran.Methods: This was a population-based cross-sectional studyconducted on 6466 subjects who had been chosen by a multistage cluster random sampling within five steps. The subjects wererandomly chosen from 325 clusters and each cluster included 20cases. Central obesity was defined as waist circumference ≥102 cmand ≥88 cm in men and women, respectively.Results: Compared to 2010, the mean waist circumference in2006 changed from 87.2 cm to 88.1 cm in men (p=0.237), andfrom 90.3 cm to 88.6 cm in women (p=0.045). The comparisonbetween 2006 and 2010 revealed that the prevalence of centralobesity slightly decreased, 6.8�0and 2.4�0in urban women andmen, respectively. Generally, the mean of waist circumferencesignificantly decreased in urban women (by 0.069 cm in each year;p=0.020); however, the decrease of waist circumference in urbanmen was not significant (0.006 cm decrease each year; p=0.915).Conclusion: The prevalence of central obesity declined amongboth males and females in the urban area; however, there wasan attenuated increasing trend in the rural area. The disparity oftrends between the two regions should be considered for furtherstudy.

Keywords

• Central obesity.
• waist circumference
• TREND
• Adult
• Iran