Weight Characteristics Comparison Through BMI Calculation and Waist Circumference Measurement in a Sample of Piedmont Elderly Subjects.

The Body Mass Index (BMI) is currently used as a good indicator to evaluate the nutritional status, but don’t give information about adiposity level. Therefore, to evaluate the body fat mass, alternative methods are used, as the waist circumference (WC), that is correlated with abdominal fat distribution. The aim of our research is to compare the evaluations carried out through the BMI with those resulting from the WC measure in a sample of 180 Piedmont elderly subjects aged 60-89 engaged in the “Act on ageing” project. For BMI we used the cutoff values extrapolated from World Health Organisation (2008) tables and for WC the parameters proposed by National Health (2001) guidelines. Our results regarding BMI show that 43,3% of subjects are overweight and 36,1% obese, while WC measurements point out an average risk level to develop chronic illnesses for 20,6% of the subjects and a high risk for 57,2% of them. Actually both methods reveal an high incidence of weight excess, but with different percentages.