Body mass index and waist-to hip ratio in patients of a stomatologic ambulance.

The decision limits of the BMI of 25 and 30 used in this paper are commonly defined as the thresholds of overweight and obesity, respectively. Our prevalence data are well comparable to those of other studies but show some special features. Thus, the frequency of moderate overweight (BMI = 25-29.9) in Freiberg is obviously higher than reported for men and women (not age-specified) in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, United States, and Australia. Our data differ from Rosenbaum's results of a survey of heights and weights in Great Britain 1980 in the following respects: 1) Higher frequency of overweight in the middle-aged groups (30-59 years) of both sexes and 2) higher prevalence of obesity in women aged 40-59 and in men aged 30-39. Comparison of our data to those of a representative Finnish survey exhibits lower prevalence of obesity (BMI greater than or equal to 30) in the age groups 40 to 69 but a surplus prevalence of obesity in men aged 30-39. The latter seems to be a special German feature which was also seen in the DHP study. The Waist-to Hip Ratios (WHR) in this study were focused on the persons with BMI greater than 25 in whom they are important for further specification of the cardiovascular risk. The android fat distribution pattern is assumed at WHR above 1.0 in men and 0.85 in women. We found the android pattern in 20-61% of the men and in 37-76% of the women with BMI greater than 25 whereby this percentage steadily increases with age in both sexes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)