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Scientific Centre for Family Health and Human Reproduction Problems (ul. Timiryazeva 16, Irkutsk 664003, Russian Federation) Problems of pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of obesity are actively discussed. The annual increase in the incidence requires improved approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and drug-free treatment of this pathological condition. Modern estimates of obesity ignore modern concepts of the heterogeneity of the disease, the role of visceral fat depots, metabolic phenotypes, and the individual cardiometabolic risk in a patient is not fully assessed. The prevalence of obesity is increasing among Asian adults due to rapid economic development and lifestyle. Obesity significantly elevates the risk of CVD (cardiovascular disease), diabetes, insulin resistance and other metabolic disorders. BMI is a widely used anthropometric index for measuring body fatness in clinical practice and epidemiological studies; Asian people are more likely to have a higher percentage of body fat at lower BMI and WC than Europeans, a number of researches were to determine the associations of BM1, waist circumference (WC) and waist-height ratio (WHtR) with CVD risk factors and to evaluate the optimal cut-offvalues to define overweight or obesity in Asian adults. In this review the major pathological factors connected to obesity are generalized. It has not been established which specific measures of obesity might be most appropriate for predicting CVD risk in Asians.

Aim: The present study reports findings from a study of preschool-age Inuit children living in the Arctic regions of Canada and Greenland. Methods: We compare stature and obesity measures using cutoffs from the Centers for Disease Control and the International Obesity Task Force references. The sample is comprised of 1121 Inuit children (554 boys and 567 girls) aged 3–5 years living in Nunavut (n=376) and Nunavik (n=87), Canada, in the capital city of Nuuk, Greenland (n=86), and in Greenland’s remaining towns and villages (n=572). Results: Greenland Inuit children were significantly taller than their Canadian counterparts, with greatest height and weight observed among children from Nuuk. Overall prevalence of stunting was low with the three cutoffs yielding similar values for height-for-age z-scores. Obesity prevalence was higher among Canadian Inuit children than their Greenland counterparts. Conclusions: Inuit children have stature values consistent with those of the Centers for Disease Control reference and low prevalence of stunting, though geographic variability in mean stature values between Canadian and Greenlandic samples likely reflects differences in both socioeconomic status and genetic admixture. Obesity prevalence is high among both Canadian and Greenland Inuit preschoolers, with children living in the city of Nuuk exhibiting lower obesity prevalence than children living in either Nunavut or Nunavik, Canada or Greenland’s towns and villages. Varying obesity prevalence may reflect varying degrees of food security in remote locations as well as the influence of stature and sitting height which have not been well studied in young Inuit children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objective:To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in Irish children using four different weight-for-height methods and to examine secular trends from previous national data.Design:A cross-sectional survey. Weight and height were measured according to standard procedures and used to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity using four weight-for-height methods of assessment, actual relative weight, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention body mass index (BMI) for age charts for boys and girls, the BMI reference curves for the UK 1990 and the International Obesity Task Force age- and sex-specific BMI cutoffs.Setting:The survey was carried out between 2003 and 2004 in the Republic of Ireland.Subjects:Random representative sample of 596 children aged 5–12 years.Results:The prevalence of overweight and obesity in Irish children is high, but varies considerably with each method. The prevalence of obesity in boys ranged from 4.1 to 11.2 % and in girls from 9.3 to 16.3%. Between 1990 and 2005, depending on the method used, there was a two-to-fourfold increase in obesity in children aged 8–12 years.Conclusion:It is evident given the variation displayed in the prevalence of obesity when using the different methods, that there is a discernible need for a single definition to identify the obese child in Ireland. The findings show a high prevalence of overweight and obesity in Irish school children and the increase in the prevalence of obesity over the last 15 years highlights this growing public health issue.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2007) 61, 743–751; doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602580; published online 20 December 2006 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent data suggest that current overweight and central adiposity guidelines based on Western populations are not appropriate for Asian populations. The published data among Chinese are insufficient to address this issue. Objective: We aimed to identify cutoffs for body mass index (BMI; in kg/m2) and waist circumference that confer increased risk of cardiovascular disease in Chinese adults as would be consistent with overweight and central adiposity. Design: A nationally representative, cross-sectional sample of 15 239 Chinese adults aged 35-74 y was studied. Results: Mean blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triacylglycerol, and glucose values were incrementally higher and mean HDL-cholesterol values were incrementally lower with each unit increase in BMI and waist circumference in both men and women. Both the point at which sensitivity equaled specificity and the shortest distance in the receiver operating characteristic curves for hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, or ⩾2 of these risk factors suggested a BMI cutoff of 24 and a waist circumference cutoff of 80 cm for both men and women. Conclusions: Lower cutoffs for BMI and waist circumference are needed in the identification of Chinese patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]