Waist-to-height ratio
The waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) of a person is defined as the person's waist circumference, divided by the person's height. The WHtR is a measure of the distribution of body fat. Higher values of WHtR indicate higher risk of obesity-related cardiovascular diseases; it is correlated with abdominal obesity.[1]
The WHtR should not be confused with the Waist–hip ratio (WHR), which has also been used to measure body fat distribution.
A 2010 study that followed 11,000 subjects for up to eight years concluded that WHtR is a much better measure of the risk of heart attack, stroke or death than the more widely used body mass index.[2] However, a 2011 study that followed 60,000 participants for up to 13 years found that waist-hip ratio was a better predictor of ischaemic heart disease mortality than WHtR.[3]
Conversely, WHtR was not a predictor for new-onset diabetes melitus in at least one study.[4]
For people under 40, a WHtR of over 0.5 is critical; for people in the age group between 40 and 50 the critical value is between 0.5 and 0.6, and for people over 50 the critical values start at 0.6.[5]
| SUBJECTS | WAIST-TO-HEIGHT RATIO |
|---|---|
| Barbie Doll | 0.2500 |
| Ken Doll | 0.3600 |
| Female College Swimmer | 0.4240 |
| Male College Swimmer | 0.4280 |
| Body Builder | 0.4580 |
| Female at increased risk | 0.4920 |
| General healthy cutoff | 0.5000 |
| Risk equivalent to BMI of 25 | 0.5100 |
| Males at increased risk | 0.5360 |
| Risk equivalent to BMI of 30 | 0.5700 |
| Obese | 0.5770 |
| Substantial risk increase | 0.5820 |
See also
- Body volume index
- Body mass index
- Sagittal Abdominal Diameter (SAD)
- Body fat percentage
- Body water
- Allometric law
- Ponderal index
- Rohrer's index
References
- ↑ CM Lee, Huxley RR, Wildman RP, Woodward M (July 2008). "Indices of abdominal obesity are better discriminators of cardiovascular risk factors than BMI: a meta-analysis'". Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 61 (7): 646–653. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2007.08.012. PMID 18359190.
- ↑ Schneider et al. (2010). "The predictive value of different measures of obesity for incident cardiovascular events and mortality.". The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 95 (4): 1777–1785. doi:10.1210/jc.2009-1584. PMID 20130075.
- ↑ Mørkedal, Bjørn; Romundstad, Pål R; Vatten, Lars J. (2011). "Informativeness of indices of blood pressure, obesity and serum lipids in relation to ischaemic heart disease mortality: the HUNT-II study". European Journal of Epidemiology 26 (6): 457–461. doi:10.1007/s10654-011-9572-7. ISSN 0393-2990. PMID 21461943.
- ↑ Ren-Jieh Kuo et al. (2011). "Inability of waist-to-height ratio to predict new onset diabetes mellitus among older adults in Taiwan: A five-year observational cohort study". Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics 53 (1): e1–e4. doi:10.1016/j.archger.2010.05.005.
- ↑ Browning Lucy M. et al. (2010). "A systematic review of waist-to-height ratio as a screening tool for the prediction of cardiovascular disease and diabetes: 0·5 could be a suitable global boundary value.". Nutrition research reviews 23 (02): 247–69. doi:10.1017/S0954422410000144.