Prevalent diseases in postmenopause and its relation to body mass index, Lipid profile and the circunference measures of waist and hip

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective: to check the best parameter among measures of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), the waist/hip ratio (WHR) and plasma lipid levels to assess the risk of postmenopausal women present conditions such as heart diseases, thyroid disease, hypertension or diabetes mellitus. Methods: retrospective study of 185 medical records of postmenopausal women in postmenopause, attended from March 1997 to July 2005. The following parameters were analyzed: total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, BMI, WC, and WHR. The Chi-square test and the Fisher’s exact test were performed for statistical analysis. Results: 108 women were hypertensive, 20 presented heart disease, 27 were diabetic, 24 were thyroid patients. The patients eventually had more than one disease. The mean age was 49.7 years ± 6.4 years. For hypertension, we found a statistically significant relation between BMI, WC, triglycerides, and total cholesterol, and the size of WC was the most important. Conclusion: to the medical care provided to post-menopausal women, it is important to include calculation of BMI, the estimation of triglycerides, the measurement of WC, and total cholesterol, especially the latter two, in order to evaluate the risk of hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Support: PIBIC-CNPq.