Ischemic Heart Disease Incidence and Indices of Body-Fat Distribution

BACKGROUND:

Previous studies have demonstrated that abdominal obesity can be predictive of ischemic heart disease. These prospective cohort studies employed simple indices of body-fat distribution such as waist-to-hip circumference ratio or subscapular skinfold. Their similar results suggested that increased abdominal obesity conferred a two-fold increased risk of ischemic heart disease among middle-aged men. The two proposed studies permitted testing of alternative fat-distribution indices which might be stronger risk factors for ischemic heart disease incidence than the waist-to-hip-ratio or the subscapular skinfold.

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

Two parallel case-control studies were conducted. In both studies, subjects were measured for girth, skinfold, abdominal sagittal diameter, height, and weight. Analyses for both protocols considered men and women separately. Possible confounders of the association between fat-distribution indices and ischemic heart disease were considered and if required, adjusted for in multivariate analyses. Possible confounders included race, age, tobacco use, alcohol use, diabetes, social class, hypertension, cholesterol levels, and physical activity levels.