J Korean Acad Fam Med.  2003 Aug;24(8):731-738.

The Comparison of Body Fat Rate and Body Mass Index through the Relationship with Cardiovascular Risk Factors

• Cho BL
• Lee HJ
• Ou SW
• Kim JS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Obesity has been generally diagnosed by 'Body Mass Index (BMI)' in primary care. Recently the use of Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzer' has become popular in Korea to evaluate body fat rate (BFR), as cost is inexpensive and the method to use is simple. As a result, the opposed finding of normal BMI and elevated BFR vice versa in same individuals are being encountered frequently. We designed this study to find out the characteristics and cardiovascular risk of people in these groups.
METHODS
The medical records of health promotion center were obtained and 22,704 applicants visitor who undeerwent health risk questionnaire, screening tests and physical examination for cardiovascular disease were reviewed.
RESULTS
After adjusting for age, sex, exercise and education level, cardiovascular risk such as hypertension, DM, and hypercholesterolemia, LDL tended to increase linearly and HDL tended to decrease linearly with increase of BFR or BMI. In comparison with normal BMI and BFR group, the odds ratios of normal BMI and elevated BFR group or vice versa were increased.
CONCLUSION
If either one of BMI or BFR of a person was elevated, even though the other was within normal range, the cardiovascular risk of that person was shown to be high.

Keyword

obesity; cardiovascular risk factors; Body Mass Index (BMI); Body Fat Rate (BFR); bioelectrical impedance analysis

MeSH Terms

Adipose Tissue*
Body Mass Index*
Cardiovascular Diseases
Education
Electric Impedance
Health Promotion
Humans
Hypercholesterolemia
Hypertension
Korea
Mass Screening
Medical Records
Obesity
Odds Ratio
Physical Examination
Primary Health Care
Reference Values
Risk Factors*
Surveys and Questionnaires