Odewumi Oluwarotimi Adegbija1, Zhiqiang Wang2. 1. Centre for Chronic Disease, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: o.adegbija@uq.edu.au. 2. Centre for Chronic Disease, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To compare gender-specific waist circumference (WC) levels of Aboriginal Australians with non-Aboriginal Australians. METHODS: A systematic search on Medline, PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar databases was conducted to identify papers that reported gender-specific waist circumference (WC) estimates of participants from the age of 15 years and above among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Means and their 95% confidence intervals of gender differences in WC, height and weight were recorded or calculated where they were not provided. Gender-specific WC, height and weight mean estimates were pooled and the I(2) statistic was used to test heterogeneity among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. RESULTS: Of 17 selected cross-sectional studies, 9 focused on Aboriginal and 8 on non-Aboriginal Australians. Seven studies reported significantly higher WC estimates among indigenous females than males. On the other hand, non-indigenous males had significantly higher WC levels than females. Males had greater height and weight estimates than females in both groups. CONCLUSION: Although indigenous women were shorter and had lower weight estimates, they had greater WC levels than indigenous men. This is the first systematic review to assess the gender-specific differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. The findings of this review warrant more efforts to understand and reduce the high prevalence of central obesity and related chronic diseases among Aboriginal women.
OBJECTIVES: To compare gender-specific waist circumference (WC) levels of Aboriginal Australians with non-Aboriginal Australians. METHODS: A systematic search on Medline, PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar databases was conducted to identify papers that reported gender-specific waist circumference (WC) estimates of participants from the age of 15 years and above among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Means and their 95% confidence intervals of gender differences in WC, height and weight were recorded or calculated where they were not provided. Gender-specific WC, height and weight mean estimates were pooled and the I(2) statistic was used to test heterogeneity among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. RESULTS: Of 17 selected cross-sectional studies, 9 focused on Aboriginal and 8 on non-Aboriginal Australians. Seven studies reported significantly higher WC estimates among indigenous females than males. On the other hand, non-indigenous males had significantly higher WC levels than females. Males had greater height and weight estimates than females in both groups. CONCLUSION: Although indigenous women were shorter and had lower weight estimates, they had greater WC levels than indigenous men. This is the first systematic review to assess the gender-specific differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. The findings of this review warrant more efforts to understand and reduce the high prevalence of central obesity and related chronic diseases among Aboriginal women.
Authors: Christopher D McKay; Eamon O'Bryan; Lina Gubhaju; Bridgette McNamara; Alison J Gibberd; Peter Azzopardi; Sandra Eades Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2022-07-27 Impact factor: 4.614