Optimal Waist Circumference Measurement Site for Assessing the Metabolic Syndrome

In the assessment of diagnostic criteria for the metabolic syndrome, much work, including ours (1), has been done to identify an optimal cutoff value for waist circumference, i.e., one that best predicts the clustering of metabolic risk factors. By contrast, little attention has been paid to the waist circumference site to be measured and its impact on the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, although definitions of waist circumference measurement vary among guidelines for the syndrome. This point should be clarified given the large variations in waist circumference according to the site measured (2). We measured waist circumference at various sites in 1,140 Japanese subjects (969 men …