Waist/Height Ratio as a Simple and Useful Predictor of Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors in Women

Abstract

To determine whether the waist/height ratio is a better predictor of coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors in women than body mass index (BMI) or the waist/hip ratio, simple and multiple regression analysis for these obesity indices and CHD risk factor levels [systolic and diastolic blood presure, fasting blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), triglyceride, cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesteroll, prevalences (hypertension, abnormal glucose tolerance, hypertriglyceridemia, hypercholesterolemia, low HDL cholesterol) were measured in 1,077 women. The highest regression coefficients were consistently between the waist/height ratio and most of the risk factors by simple regression analysis. Furthermore, the waist/height ratio was the single independent variable to all or most of the risk factors by multiple regression analysis of the waist/height ratio and BMI or the waist/height ratio and the waist/hip ratio. These findings suggest that the waist/height ratio may be a better predictor of multiple CHD risk factors than BMI or the waist/hip ratio. © 1995, The Japanese Society of Internal Medicine. All rights reserved.