Comparison of body mass index with waist circumference and skinfold-based percent body fat in firefighters: adiposity classification and associations with cardiovascular disease risk factors

PurposeThis study aims to examine whether body mass index (BMI) overestimates the prevalence of overweight or obese firefighters when compared to waist circumference (WC) and skinfold-based percent body fat (PBF) and to investigate differential relationships of the three adiposity measures with other biological cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors.MethodsThe adiposity of 355 (347 males and eight females) California firefighters was assessed using three different measures. Other CVD risk factors (high blood pressure, high lipid profiles, high glucose, and low VO2 max) of the firefighters were also clinically assessed.ResultsThe prevalence of total overweight and obesity was significantly (p < 0.01) higher by BMI (80.4 %) than by WC (48.7 %) and by PBF (55.6 %) in male firefighters. In particular, the prevalence of overweight firefighters was much higher (p < 0.01) by BMI (57.3 %) than by WC (24.5 %) and PBF (38.3 %). 60-64 % of male firefighters who were assessed as normal weight by WC and PBF were misclassified as overweight by BMI. When overweight by BMI was defined as 27.5-29.9 kg/m(2) (vs. the standard definition of 25.0-29.9 kg/m(2)), the agreement of the adiposity classification increased between BMI and other two adiposity measures. Obese firefighters had the highest CVD risk profiles across all three adiposity measures. Only when overweight by BMI was defined narrowly, overweight firefighters had substantially higher CVD risk profiles. Obesity and overweight were less prevalent in female and Asian male firefighters.ConclusionsBMI overestimated the prevalence of total overweight and obesity among male firefighters, compared to WC and skinfold-based PBF. Overweight by BMI needs to be more narrowly defined, or the prevalence of BMI-based overweight (27.5-29.9 kg/m(2)) should be reported additionally for prevention of CVD among male firefighters

Towards a usability scale for participatory GIS

Since its emergence in the 1990s, the area of Participatory GIS (PGIS) has generated numerous interactive mapping tools to support complex planning processes. The need to involve non-expert users makes the usability of these tools a crucial aspect that contributes to their success or failure. While many approaches and procedures have been proposed to assess usability in general, to date there is no standardized way to measure the overall usability of a PGIS. For this purpose, we introduce the Participatory GIS Usability Scale (PGUS), a questionnaire to evaluate the usability of a PGIS along five dimensions (user interface, spatial interface, learnability, effectiveness, and communication). The questionnaire was developed in collaboration with the user community of SeaSketch, a web-based platform for marine spatial planning. PGUS quantifies the subjective perception of usability on a scale between 0 and 100, facilitating the rapid evaluation and comparison between PGIS. As a case study, the PGUS was used to collect feedback from 175 SeaSketch users, highlighting the usability strengths and weaknesses of the platform