Coronary heart disease and body fat distribution.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review without systematic methodology or quantitative synthesis
PubMed 20425248 · doi:10.1007/s11883-010-0092-9
What was done
This narrative review synthesized epidemiologic evidence evaluating the association between measures of body fat distribution—specifically waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and lower body fat—and the risk of future coronary heart disease (CHD) events compared to body mass index (BMI).
What was found
No quantitative effect sizes, risk ratios, or numeric values are reported in the abstract. Abdominal fat measures (waist circumference and waist-hip ratio) were reported to predict CHD risk independently of BMI and partially independently of standard cardiovascular risk factors. The association varied across age, sex, and ethnic subgroups, while lower body fat was noted to associate with reduced CHD risk.
Why it matters
Simple anthropometric proxies for abdominal adiposity offer incremental prognostic value over BMI for assessing coronary heart disease risk.
Limits
The abstract provides no sample sizes, study counts, or quantitative metrics. As a narrative review, it lacks a systematic search or meta-analytic pooling, and standardized clinical cut-offs across diverse populations remain undefined.
Cited by
- supports A waist circumference of 35 inches or greater for women and 40 inches or greater for men serves as a clinical sign of excessive visceral fat.