COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENCES IN RATIO OF WAIST TO HIP GIRTH AND BODY-MASS INDEX ON CARBOHYDRATE-METABOLISM IN CHINESE FEMALES

Plasma glucose and insulin concentration and the ability of physiological hyperinsulinemia to dispose of a glucose load were determined in 26 healthy, non-diabetic, Chinese females. The study population was divided in half on the basis of two indices of obesity: 1) body mass index (greater than or less than 25.3 kg/m2) and 2) ratio of waist to hip girth (greater than or less than 0.83). When these groups were compared on the basis of the three measured variables, the results indicated that the untoward metabolic effects of obesity were, if anything, more prominent when subjects were divided on the basis of body mass index as compared to a division based on the ratio of waist to hip girth. Similarly, correlation coefficients between body mass index and plasma glucose response, plasma insulin response, and insulin-stimulated glucose disposal were equal to or greater than the correlation coefficients between ratio of waist to hip girth and the same three variables. These data suggest that the impact of differences in abdominal obesity, as reflected in measurement of the ratio of waist to hip girth, is no greater than the effect of overall obesity, as estimated by calculation of body mass index, on plasma glucose and insulin responses to oral glucose and insulin-stimulated glucose disposal in Chinese females who are not massively obese.