Waist:height ratio: a superior index in estimating cardiovascular risks in Turkish adults. Issue 10 (8th October 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Meseri, Reci; Ucku, Reyhan; Unal, Belgin
• Is Part Of: Public health nutrition. Volume 17:Issue 10(2014)
• Page Start: 2246
• Page End: 2252
• Publication Date: 2013-10-08
• Subjects: Nutrition -- Periodicals; Nutrition policy -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; 613.2
• DOI: 10.1017/S136898001300267X
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1368-9800

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="abs1" sec-type="general"> <title>Objective</title> <p>To determine the best anthropometric measurement among waist: height ratio (WHtR), BMI, waist:hip ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC) associated with high CHD risk in adults and to define the optimal cut-off point for WHtR.</p> </sec> <sec id="abs2" sec-type="general"> <title>Design</title> <p>Population-based cross-sectional study.</p> </sec> <sec id="abs3" sec-type="general"> <title>Setting</title> <p>Balcova, Izmir, Turkey.</p> </sec> <sec id="abs4" sec-type="subjects"> <title>Subjects</title> <p>Individuals (<italic>n</italic> 10 878) who participated in the baseline survey of the Heart of Balcova Project. For each participant, 10-year coronary event risk (Framingham risk score) was calculated using data on age, sex, smoking status, blood pressure, serum lipids and diabetes status. Participants who had risk higher than 10 % were defined as 'medium or high risk'.</p> </sec> <sec id="abs5" sec-type="results"> <title>Results</title> <p>Among the participants, 67·7 % were female, 38·2 % were obese, 24·5 % had high blood pressure, 9·2 % had diabetes, 1·5 % had undiagnosed diabetes (≥126 mg/dl), 22·0 % had high total cholesterol and 45·9 % had low HDL-cholesterol. According to Framingham risk score, 32·7 % of them had a risk score higher than 10 %. Those who had medium or high risk had significantly higher mean BMI, WHtR, WHR and WC compared with those at low risk. According to receiver-operating characteristic curves, WHtR was the best and BMI was the worst indicator of CHD risk for both sexes. For both men and women, 0·55 was the optimal cut-off point for WHtR for CHD risk.</p> </sec> <sec id="abs6" sec-type="conclusion"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>BMI should not be used alone for evaluating obesity when estimating cardiometabolic risks. WHtR was found to be a successful measurement for determining cardiovascular risks. A cut-off point of '0·5' can be used for categorizing WHtR in order to target people at high CHD risk for preventive actions.</p> </sec> </abstract>