The Use of Anthropometric Measures for Cardiometabolic Risk Identification in a Rural African Population

It has been suggested that the current definitions of obesity may not be appropriate for African populations (1–3). However, few studies of anthropometric indicators of cardiometabolic risk have been conducted within sub-Saharan Africa, where obesity is a rapidly growing problem (4,5). A better understanding of the relationship between adiposity and the risk of cardiometabolic disease in sub-Saharan African populations will be important for the design and implementation of public health care and prevention programs. This cross-sectional study assessed the ability of anthropometric measures to identify risk of diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, and considered the optimal cutoff points for BMI and waist circumference (WC) in a rural Ugandan general population, using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. A total of 6,136 participants, aged $18 years, were surveyed, of which 5,518 (57 % women) had complete data for analysis. Data were collected using standard procedures. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure (BP) $140 mmHg or diastolic BP $90 mmHg or reported treatment for raised BP. Dyslipidemia was defined as total cholesterol.5.2 mmol/L and/or triglycerides.1.7 mmol/L. Diabetes was defined as HbA1