A person's waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), also called waist-to-stature ratio (WSR), is defined as their waist circumference divided by their height, both measured in the same units. 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.
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. However, a 2011 study that followed 60,000 participants for up to 13 years found that waist-hip ratio (when adjusted for BMI) was a better predictor of ischemic heart disease mortality than WHtR.
Conversely, WHtR was not a predictor for new-onset diabetes melitus in at least one study.
A WHtR of over 0.5 is critical and signifies an increased risk; a 2010 systematic review of published studies concluded that "WHtR may be advantageous because it avoids the need for age-, sex- and ethnic-specific boundary values". For people under 40 the critical value is 0.5, for people aged 40-50 the critical value is between 0.5 and 0.6, and for people over 50 the critical values start at 0.6.
As a comparative, the following table categorises the boundaries of persons in terms of health:
Video Waist-to-height ratio
See also
- Body fat percentage
- Body water
- Allometric law
- Ponderal index
Maps Waist-to-height ratio
References
External links
- WHtR Calculator
Source of article : Wikipedia
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