Caractéristiques anthropométriques et facteurs de risque cardio-métaboliques en milieu urbain au Sénégal

In sub-Saharan Africa, lifestyle changes are promoting an upward trend in overweight and obesity, especially in urban areas. In order to evaluate future threats to public health in terms of chronic diseases, we analysed the relations between anthropometric characteristics and cardiometabolic risk factors in a population-based sample of 166 urban-dwelling adults in Senegal (mean age 43.2 ± 9.4 years). Obesity was rare in men (3.4%), but frequent in women (29.2%). Nevertheless, women had lower waist-to-hip ratio and better systolic blood pressure, triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol levels. The analysis of correlations between cardiometabolic risk factors and body fat amount and/or distribution showed that they were somewhat different from what is usually observed in Caucasian populations, but they do exist and this means that obesity prevention should not be overlooked in the public health agenda for sub-Saharan Africa.