Table 1.
Age-standardized Characteristics According to Measures of Baseline Body Fat Distribution* in 1986 in the Nurses’ Health Study
| WC Categories (in) | HC Categories (in) | WHR Categories | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category cutoff | ≤27 | 30–32 | ≥38 | ≤36 | 39-40 | ≥45 | ≤0.73 | 0.77–<0.81 | ≥0.88 |
| Number of subjects | 7612 | 9101 | 2667 | 6890 | 7542 | 3050 | 8298 | 7312 | 2431 |
| Age, yr | 50.3 (7.0) | 53.4 (7.1) | 54.5 (7.0) | 51.6 (7.4) | 52.9 (7.3) | 53.4 (7.0) | 50.4 (7.0) | 53.2 (7.1) | 55.2 (7.1) |
| BMI, kg/m2 | 20.9 (1.9) | 24.4 (2.6) | 33.5 (5.2) | 21.0 (2.2) | 24.1 (2.4) | 33.2 (4.9) | 22.7 (3.3) | 24.9 (4.4) | 28.3 (5.3) |
| Smoking | |||||||||
| Never, % | 43 | 44 | 44 | 39 | 45 | 47 | 48 | 43 | 40 |
| Past, % | 33 | 35 | 38 | 31 | 36 | 38 | 34 | 34 | 34 |
| Current, % | 24 | 21 | 18 | 30 | 19 | 15 | 18 | 23 | 25 |
| Pack years | 12.0 (17.2) | 12.4 (17.9) | 13.9 (19.7) | 14.8 (19.2) | 11.7 (17.2) | 11.7 (17.6) | 9.7 (15.2) | 12.9 (18.0) | 15.9 (20.6) |
| Age at menarche, yr | 12.7 (1.4) | 12.6 (1.4) | 12.3 (1.5) | 12.7 (1.5) | 12.6 (1.4) | 12.3 (1.4) | 12.6 (1.4) | 12.6 (1.4) | 12.5 (1.5) |
| Parity (no. of children) | 2.7 (1.5) | 3.0 (1.6) | 3.1 (1.7) | 2.8 (1.6) | 3.0 (1.6) | 3.1 (1.7) | 2.8 (1.5) | 3.0 (1.6) | 3.1 (1.7) |
| Oral contraceptive use, % | 49 | 47 | 43 | 48 | 48 | 44 | 49 | 47 | 45 |
| Postmenopausal, % | 55 | 55 | 57 | 56 | 55 | 56 | 55 | 56 | 56 |
| Postmenopausal hormone use, % (among postmenopausal women only) | |||||||||
| No use | 57 | 64 | 76 | 62 | 64 | 76 | 60 | 65 | 73 |
| Oral conjugated estrogen | 15 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 12 | 8 | 14 | 12 | 9 |
| Oral estrogen & progesterone | 11 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 4 |
| Others | 17 | 15 | 12 | 16 | 15 | 11 | 16 | 15 | 14 |
*
WC, waist circumference; HC, hip circumference; WHR, waist-to-hip ratio. All data are presented as mean (standard deviation) unless otherwise specified. With the exception of age, all data shown are standardized to the age distributions of the cohort.