TY - JOUR
T1 - Body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and body fat in relation to health care use in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging
AU - Andreacchi, Alessandra T.
AU - Griffith, Lauren E.
AU - Guindon, G. Emmanuel
AU - Mayhew, Alexandra
AU - Bassim, Carol
AU - Pigeyre, Marie
AU - Stranges, Saverio
AU - Anderson, Laura N.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements The CLSA is led by Drs Parminder Raina, Christina Wolfson, and Susan Kirkland. Funding for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) is provided by the Government of Canada through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) under grant reference LSA 94473 and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. This research has been conducted using the CLSA’s dataset Baseline Tracking version 3.4 and Baseline Comprehensive Version 4.0, under Application Number 19CA004.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Background/objectives: Obesity is associated with increased health care use (HCU), but it is unclear whether this is consistent across all measures of adiposity. The objectives were to compare obesity defined by body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and percent body fat (%BF), and to estimate their associations with HCU. Subjects/methods: Baseline data from 30,092 participants aged 45–85 years from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging were included. Measures of adiposity were recorded by trained staff and obesity was defined as BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m2 for all participants and WC ≥ 88 cm and ≥102 cm, WHR ≥ 0.85 and ≥0.90, and %BF > 35% and >25% (measured using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry) for females and males, respectively. Self-reported HCU in the past 12 months was collected for any contact with a general practitioner, specialist, emergency department, and hospitalization. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) compared each measure to %BF-defined obesity, the reference standard. Relative risks (RR) and risk differences (RD) adjusted for age, sex, education, income, urban/rural, marital status, smoking status, and alcohol use were calculated, and results were age- and sex-stratified. Results: Obesity prevalence varied by measure: BMI (29%), WC (42%), WHR (62%), and %BF (73%). BMI and WC were highly correlated with %BF (r ≥ 0.70), while WHR demonstrated a weaker relationship with %BF, with differences by sex (r = 0.29 and r = 0.46 in females and males, respectively). There were significantly increased RR and RD for all measures and health care services, for example, WC-defined obesity was associated with an increased risk of hospitalization (RR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.28–1.54 and RD per 100: 2.6, 95% CI:1.9–3.3). Age-stratified results revealed that older adult groups with obesity demonstrated weak or no associations with HCU. Conclusions: All measures of adiposity were positively associated with increased HCU although obesity may not be a strong predictor of HCU in older adults.
AB - Background/objectives: Obesity is associated with increased health care use (HCU), but it is unclear whether this is consistent across all measures of adiposity. The objectives were to compare obesity defined by body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and percent body fat (%BF), and to estimate their associations with HCU. Subjects/methods: Baseline data from 30,092 participants aged 45–85 years from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging were included. Measures of adiposity were recorded by trained staff and obesity was defined as BMI ≥ 30.0 kg/m2 for all participants and WC ≥ 88 cm and ≥102 cm, WHR ≥ 0.85 and ≥0.90, and %BF > 35% and >25% (measured using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry) for females and males, respectively. Self-reported HCU in the past 12 months was collected for any contact with a general practitioner, specialist, emergency department, and hospitalization. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) compared each measure to %BF-defined obesity, the reference standard. Relative risks (RR) and risk differences (RD) adjusted for age, sex, education, income, urban/rural, marital status, smoking status, and alcohol use were calculated, and results were age- and sex-stratified. Results: Obesity prevalence varied by measure: BMI (29%), WC (42%), WHR (62%), and %BF (73%). BMI and WC were highly correlated with %BF (r ≥ 0.70), while WHR demonstrated a weaker relationship with %BF, with differences by sex (r = 0.29 and r = 0.46 in females and males, respectively). There were significantly increased RR and RD for all measures and health care services, for example, WC-defined obesity was associated with an increased risk of hospitalization (RR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.28–1.54 and RD per 100: 2.6, 95% CI:1.9–3.3). Age-stratified results revealed that older adult groups with obesity demonstrated weak or no associations with HCU. Conclusions: All measures of adiposity were positively associated with increased HCU although obesity may not be a strong predictor of HCU in older adults.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100137258&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33432110
U2 - 10.1038/s41366-020-00731-z
DO - 10.1038/s41366-020-00731-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 33432110
AN - SCOPUS:85100137258
SN - 0307-0565
VL - 45
SP - 666
EP - 676
JO - International Journal of Obesity
JF - International Journal of Obesity
IS - 3
ER -