Gender differences in cardiometabolic abnormalities across different BMI categories

Abstract

Background: Not all obese individuals exhibit abnormal cardiometabolic parameters. These are termed as being metabolically healthy obese (MHO). Conversely some normal weight individuals exhibit adverse cardiometabolic parameters and are described as being metabolically unhealthy normal weight (MUHNW). Visceral adiposity is known to be strongly associated with cardiometabolic risk than subcutaneous adiposity. Furthermore, there are gender differences in distribution of fat and in the prevalence of overweight and obesity. This study explored gender differences in the prevalence of adiposity-metabolic health phenotypes (expressed as BMI and presence or absence of certain cardiometabolic parameters) in a nationally representative sample of Maltese subjects. We also investigated gender differences in anthropometric measures and cardiometabolic parameters and in the relationship between BMI categories and metabolic health.