A large waist circumference can lead to increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, but a survey showed that up to 46.8 percent of respondents had not measured their waist in the past year, the Taiwan Millennium Health Foundation said on Monday as it announced the launch of its annual waist measurement health awareness campaign.
The foundation and the Health Promotion Administration hold “89 Waist Measurement Day” on or around Aug. 9, with the month and date numbers to remind people to keep a healthy waist size — below 80cm for women and below 90cm for men.
Foundation chairman Wayne Sheu (許惠恒) said this year is the 16th campaign since it was launched in 2006.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
About 70 percent of people are aware of the “80cm and 90cm” healthy waistline standard, but 46.8 percent did not measure their waist in the past year, Sheu said, citing a foundation survey.
Given the results, the foundation collaborated with the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), adding a new feature to its NHI Express App that reminds people to keep a log of their waist measurements.
NHIA Director-General Lee Po-chang (李伯璋) said the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids and high blood sugar — are common health issues among adults, so the NHIA in June launched a metabolic syndrome prevention program.
As the NHI Express App has been downloaded more than 20 million times, the NHIA hopes it will become a “health passbook,” Lee said.
HPA Deputy Director Wei Shi-lun (魏璽倫) said that among the approximately 1.9 million people who in 2020 underwent the government-funded adult preventive health examination for adults aged 40 or older, more than 60 percent had a waist circumference exceeding 80cm or 90cm and metabolic syndrome.
Chan Ding-cheng (詹鼎正), director of National Taiwan University Hospital’s Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, said that the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome is made when a person meets three of five criteria: a large waist circumference; blood pressure of 130/85 millimeters of mercury or higher; a fasting blood glucose level of 100 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) or more, or the person is taking glucose-lowering medication; a triglyceride level of 150mg/dL or more; and a high-density lipoprotein level less than 40mg/dL for men or less than 50mg/dL for women.
A large waist circumference suggests an excess of abdominal visceral fat, which can lead to increased risk of cancer, dementia and cardiovascular diseases, Chan said.
Studies suggest that the risk of developing cardiovascular disease increases by 2 percent for each 1cm of waist circumference, while the risk of death is increased by 17 percent in men and by 13 percent in women for each 5cm, he said.
People with a healthy waist circumference should measure it at least once per year, while those with a large waist circumference should do so every week, he said, adding that the records can be kept using the NHI Express App.
The foundation in cooperation with Uni-President Group has a program to distribute free measuring tapes at more than 1,300 locations of the corporation’s 16 distribution channels, including 7-Eleven convenience stores, Starbucks coffee shops and Carrefour supermarkets.
People can enter a lottery on the foundation’s Web site to win cash certificates by logging their waist circumference on NHI Express App before Sunday next week.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
RSS