Image: Larger waist sizes can increase risk of illness

New analysis from Nuffield Health - one of the UK's largest healthcare charities - has found that larger waist sizes can increase the risk of cancer and infertility in women.

The warning comes following an assessment of health MOT data collected from more than 54,000 people looking to improve their health and fitness levels.

More than half of the women analysed (57 per cent) had waist sizes within the "high health risk" category, which places them at greater risk from illnesses and health complications.

Nuffield Health said the average waist measurement for women was 4.9cm more than 80cm - regarded as the uppermost healthy size. Most men, however, were found to have "healthy" waist sizes.

The charity said its concerns over the waist sizes had been "compounded" by the revelation that 52.5 per cent of women assessed had a Body Mass Index above the healthy range.

Nuffield Health professional head of physicians and diagnostics Dr Davina Deniszczyc said: "While waist size may seem like a cosmetic issue, this isn't about women fitting into their skinny jeans; it's an important indicator of overall health and wellbeing.

"The results for women highlight a worrying problem as fat being stored around the waist can contribute to significant health issues, such as breast cancer and infertility."

US Girls, an initiative delivered by the Active Women Consortium to encourage more women to become active, said the Nuffield Health findings would help draw attention to the issue.

Active Women national manager Karen Keohane said: "Us Girls are already aware of the need to get women more active and we welcome the findings from Nuffield Health.

"We are currently on target to hit our programme goal of getting 30,000 young women aged between 16- and 25-years-old exercising."

Details: www.nuffieldhealth.com

Image: jcpjr/shutterstock.com