Monitoring Your Health at Home
Amanda Shaw | Director of Marketing, ARTA
ARTA received a wide variety of responses from
members after the distribution of ARTA Wellness:
The Diabetes Volume. Several requested more
information on different tools that could be used
to monitor health (and specifically, body fat
composition) at home.
In the Diabetes Volume, calculating the body
mass index (BMI) was discussed. The Canadian
Guidelines for Body Weight Classification in
Adults also uses waist circumference to assess
a person’s risk of developing health problems.
Waist circumference is an indicator of abdominal
fat. Excess fat around the waist and upper body is
associated with greater health risk than fat located
more in the hip and thigh area.
To measure your waist circumference, follow these
simple steps:
• Use a tape measure that is not old or stretched.
• Take off any bulky clothing (including coats or
belts) and empty your pockets.
• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Wrap the tape measure around your belly, directly
against your skin, if possible. It should be placed
about halfway between the bottom of your lowest
rib and the top of your hip bones, roughly in line
with your belly button and loose enough for you to
be able to slip a finger inside the tape.
• Breathe out normally.
• Record your waist measurement in centimetres.
A waist circumference at or above 102 cm for men,
and 88 cm for women is associated with an
increased risk of developing health problems,
such as diabetes, heart disease, and high blood
pressure. Waist circumference is a nice check-
and-balance to BMI, since BMI only looks at
overall weight and does not take into account
if increased weight is from healthy muscle mass.
Measuring your waist circumference using a
tape measure is easy, but if you want a more
specific tool, you could consider a body-fat caliper.
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They are readily available at health stores, drug
stores, and even big box stores. They come with
charts and graphs and allow you to measure your
body composition in a variety of body areas, not
just your waist.
There are many medical kits or medical devices
available for home use. Using home test kits can
help you take an active role in monitoring your
health, offer privacy and convenience, and usually
provide quick results. There are also many risks.
Tests can be defective or provide inaccurate results.
All medical devices in Canada need to be licensed;
however, some companies may advertise and sell
unlicensed kits online or via mail order. You can
check to see if a medical device has an active licence
through a Government of Canada database before
you purchase it.
Your health is a very complex issue. While it is
important to take an active role in your health,
at-home tests are not a replacement for professional
health care. Any at-home testing is best used as
an interim method between regularly scheduled
medical appointments.
Personal health monitoring devices are not
covered by the ARTA Retiree Benefits Plan, so
consult with your doctor about whether home
monitoring is a good idea for you, and which type
of monitor (there are many different kinds of Home
A1C tests, cholesterol test kits, or blood pressure
cuffs) would best suit your needs. ●
Erratum: Thank you to a member who contacted
us regarding an error in the BMI calculation on page
14 of ARTA Wellness: The Diabetes Volume. BMI =
weight in kg/(height in metres) 2 . Our apologies for
the omission of ‘squared.’ If you are a new ARTA
member who did not receive a copy of ARTA
Wellness: The Diabetes Volume, you can access it
online at arta.net/wellness/physical-wellness/
diabetes-initiative/ or you can contact the ARTA
office to request to have a hard copy mailed to you.