ANTHROPOMETRIC CORRELATES OF METABOLIC SYNDROME COMPONENTS IN A DIVERSE SAMPLE OF OVERWEIGHT/OBESE WOMEN

determine the relationship between body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with cardiometabolic var-iables that reflect the metabolic syndrome in overweight/obese premenopausal White, Afri-can American, and Hispanic women. Methods: Two hundred and thirty four young overweight/obese women enrolled in a weight loss program were recruited for this study. Analysis of variance was used to compare means among groups, and multiple regression analyses were used to determine the relationship be-tween anthropometric measurements and car-diometabolic variables, after controlling for age. Results: In both White and African American women, BMI was significantly related to systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, while in Hispanic women, BMI failed to predict any cardiometabolic variables. Using waist circumference afforded the additional prediction of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (P5.017) and triglycerides in White women and serum glucose in African American women. In Hispanic women, waist circumference significantly pre-dicted serum glucose. WHR was the strongest predictor of metabolic syndrome components in White women; however, it failed to predict any cardiometabolic variables in Hispanic women. Conclusions: Both waist circumference and WHR were better correlates of metabolic syndrome components than was BMI. While WHR appeared optimal for predicting compo-nents of the metabolic syndrome in White women, our findings showed that waist circum-ference was the most global anthropometric indicator of metabolic syndrome components in a diverse racial and ethnic sample of overweight