TAIPEI, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- How long has it been since you measured your waistline?
That is a question Taiwan health authorities asked the island's residents in a recent survey.
The answer: Half of the people aged between 18 and 39 said they had measured their waistlines in more than six months, and about 7.7 percent said they never have.
Chia Shu-li, a health official, said at the release of survey results that a waistline of over 90 centimeters is excessive for men and 80 centimeters for women.
"Excessive waistline means excessive fat in the abdomen, which can affect metabolism and leads to rising triglyceride concentration and blood sugar level, raising the risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes," Chia told reporters.
Experts said people with excessive waistlines are 1.44 times more likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases and 1.56 times more likely to get heart diseases.
Official figures show that about a quarter of men and one-fifth of women in Taiwan are considered overweight and obese. The prevalence rate of metabolic syndromes related to abdominal obesity is around 30 percent.
Health officials took the chance to urge the public to maintain a healthy lifestyle and have their waistline, weight and blood pressure checked regularly.
To help people measure their waistlines, free measuring tape will be made available at 7-ELEVEN convenience stores across Taiwan.
At Thursday's press event, the Taiwan Millennium Health Foundation also revealed an interesting finding in their survey that people tend to speak with sarcasm instead of encouragement to their family members who are overweight.
"This does not help them lose weight," said Wu Chih-hsing, a director at the foundation who is also a medical doctor. "We need to express our concerns well and use accurate figures of their body sizes to urge them to work on obesity."
Besides the waistline, the doctor also recommended people measuring their hiplines and circumference of their shins more often. The latter is considered an indicator for sarcopenia mostly found among old people.
