Appropriate Body Mass Index and Waist-hip Ratio Cutoff Points for Overweight and Obesity in Adults of Northeast China

The current overweight and obesity guidelines based on the Westerners are not consistent with many studies based on the Asians. The guidelines may be different because of regional diversity. This study aimed to determine the appropriate body mass index (BMI) and waist-hip ratio (WHR) cutoff points in the adults of Northeast China.
Overall, 21206 adults were selected from Jilin Province Adult Chronic Disease and Risk Factor Survey conducted in 2012. A representative sample was collected in the Jilin Province of northeast China by a multistage stratified random cluster sampling design. The age of participants was from 20 to 79 yr old. The test items were clustered by risk factors, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were computed to analyze.
Under different risk factors, BMI cutoff points were affected greatly. Especially for diabetes, the cutoff value was apparently larger than others were. WHR increased with age in both genders. From a general view, male WHR was slightly larger than female. In the male, WHR cutoff point was near 0.88 with a tiny change, as for in the female was near 0.86.
The cutoff values of sensitivity and specificity are relatively good and false positives rate is relatively low. BMI cutoffs values of overweight and obesity are 24.5 kg/m2 and 29.0 kg/m2, WHR cutoff values of the male are 0.88, the female is 0.86.