Background
: Recently, body composition analyzer has been used widely clinically. Various indirectly measured values of body are calculated without direct measuring. The abdominal circumference that is presented by such instrument may be used for diagnosing abdominal obesity, but the reliable evidence of the accuracy and the validity may be not be enough for application to general population. For this reason, the author investigated the usefulness of automatically produced abdominal circumference for diagnosing abdominal obesity.

Methods : The medical records of 5,555 outpatients who had undergone body composition analysis in a tertiary hospital was collected. The usefulness of the automatically presented abdominal circumference for diagnosing abdominal obesity among general population was investigated.

Results : There was a significant positive correlation between abdominal circumference measured by body composition analyzer and measuring tape in the normal, the overweight, and the obese groups of both gender. But, the results were the same only in females in the underweight group. The most significant difference between the two values were 4.8±5.0 cm in normal male group and -5.7±5.5 cm in female obese group. The difference of the male obese group was lesser than that of the overweight, the normal and the underweight groups. The difference of the male overweight group was lesser than that of the normal group. The difference of the female obese group was lesser than that of the overweight, the normal and the underweight groups. The sensitivity and specificity to detect abdominal obese person among the total subjects was 76.3% and 79.1%, respectively. The specificity was higher in all male and the normal female groups, wheras the sensitivity was higher in the obese and the overweight female groups.

Conclusion : Physicians should confirm the accuracy of abdominal circumference, especially in normal males and obese female group, although the automatically presented value is convenient and reflects the manually measured one very well which is useful to diagnose abdominal obesity.