Study on worldwide obesity crisis

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Almost a quarter of men and 27% of women are fat enough to be considered obese, according to the findings.

Doctors assessed 168,159 people aged 18 to 80 in 63 countries across five continents.

A tape measure was used to record the waist circumference of all those taking part. Relative weight and height were also measured to provide Body Mass Index (BMI) figures.

The International Day for Evaluation of Abdominal Obesity (Idea) was conducted on two specified half-days by randomly chosen physicians.

Lead author Dr Beverly Balkau, from the French state-run medical research institute Inserm, in Villejuif, said: "This is the largest study to assess the frequency of adiposity (body fat) in the clinic, providing a snapshot of patients worldwide. The study results show that excess body weight is pandemic, with one half to two-thirds of the overall study population being overweight or obese. Central adiposity adds significantly to the risk of developing heart disease and particularly of developing diabetes."

She said waist circumference (WC) was a more accurate marker of heart disease and diabetes risk than BMI.

"Visceral fat is an important determinant of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and the WC is closely related with visceral fat as evaluated by CT scans." she added. "The WC is so easy to measure in the clinic.""

More than half the study population - 56% of men and 71% of women - had over-wide waistlines measuring 37 inches and 31.5 inches respectively.

The findings were published by the American Heart Association journal Circulation.