The Cross Sectional Study to Investigate the Waist Circumference Cut Off Points for the Prediction of Overweight and Obesity of the Turkish Adult Population

Waist circumference (WC) is an easy and reliable measure of visceral adipose tissue and a simple index of cardiovascular risk. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported sex specific WC cut off values for the Caucasian people, named as action levels 1 and 2, to define the overweight or obese people. These cut off values, originally established in a Dutch population, were later adopted by several medical organizations in order to define Metabolic Syndrome. However, these cut off levels may not necessarily represent the characteristics of the other populations. Therefore it is recommended that the sex specific WC cut off points should be established for different ethnic groups.

The investigators aimed to investigate whether the suggested sex specific WC cut off points for the Caucasian adults are appropriate for the Turkish adult population. The secondary aim of the study is to search for better WC cut off points to predict obesity, metabolic syndrome and increased cardiovascular risk in Turkish adult men and women.