Obesity in African women in the North West Province, South Africa is associated with an increased risk of non-communicable diseases: the THUSA study

• Published in: British journal of nutrition 2001-12, Vol.86 (6), p.733-740
• Main Authors: Kruger, H. S., Venter, C. S., Vorster, H. H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino acids; Arterio-venous; Biological and medical sciences; Black people; Blood pressure; Cholesterol; Correlation analysis; Disease; Exercise; Feed intake; Glucose; High density lipoprotein; Hindlimb; Insulin; Lipids; Medical sciences; Metabolic diseases; Nutrition; Obesity; Protein metabolism; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Risk factors; Rural areas; Sheep; Urbanization; Womens health
• ISSN: 0007-1145; 1475-2662
• DOI: 10.1079/BJN2001469

The objective of the present study was to assess the relationship between anthropometric measurements and risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD) in South African black women. A cross-sectional sample of 1040 apparently healthy black female volunteers, 15–70 years old, was recruited from thirty-seven randomly selected sites in the North West Province, stratified according to level of urbanisation. We analysed the association between BMI, waist:hip (WHR), waist circumference (WC) and skinfold measurements and the following risk factors for NCD: blood pressure, serum lipids, fasting serum glucose and insulin and plasma fibrinogen, by using age-adjusted correlation analyses and stepwise regression analysis. Of the subjects, 28·6 % were obese (BMI>30). After adjustment for age and smoking status, BMI correlated significantly with diastolic blood pressure (r 0·21, P=0·037), serum triacylglycerols (TG) (r 0·30, P=0·003), fasting glucose (r 0·29, P=0·005) and log fasting insulin (r 0·24, P=0·02). There was a significant negative correlation between BMI and HDL-cholesterol (r -0·38, P