BACKGROUND Central body fat is a better predictor than overall body fat for cardiovascular (CV) risk factors in both adults and children. Waist circumference (WC) has been used as a proxy measure of central body fat. Children at high CV risk may be identified by WC measurements. Waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) has been proposed as an alternative, conveniently age-independent measure of CV risk alt...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to compare the fixed 0.5 cut-off and the age- and sex-specific 90th percentile (P90) for waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) in German adolescents with respect to the prevalence of abdominal obesity and to compare the screening ability of WHtR and BMI to identify hypertensive blood pressure (BP) values. METHODS Between 2003 and 2006, the German Health Interview an...

The incidence of metabolic syndrome (MS) is increasing in adolescents, which can lead to major health threats in the future. Body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are commonly used for identifying adolescents at higher risk for MS, but BMI is not a measure of fat distribution, and different BMI and WC cut offs are used according to age. Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) can be a good in...

BACKGROUND School-based screening and prevention programs for adiposity generally target school children in grades 4 and 6 (age 9-11 years). The aims of this study were to evaluate the validity of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) in identifying abdominal adiposity in fifth-grade Japanese school children and to determine optimal cut-off values for...

The article aims to evaluate the relation between cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF) and anthropometric indicators in a sample of university students from São Luís-MA, Brazil. It is a cross-sectional study conducted with 968 university students, with median age of 22. Glycemia, triglycerides, HDL-c, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, metabolic syndrome (Joint Interim Statement c...

Convention defines pediatric adiposity by the body mass index z-score (BMIz) referenced to normative growth charts. Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) does not depend on sex-and-age references. In the HEALTHY Study enrollment sample, we compared BMIz with WHtR for ability to identify adverse cardiometabolic risk. Among 5,482 sixth-grade students from 42 middle schools, we estimated explanatory variat...

This study aims to investigate the association of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) with chronic kidney disease (CKD).A cross-sectional survey was conducted in a nationally representative sample of 123,629 Chinese urban adults who participated in health examinations between 2008 and 2009. BMI, WC, and WHtR were measured, as well as serum and urine...

Introduction: Waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) are used to screen the central obesity and identify metabolic syndrome. These parameters are dependent on sex, age and ethnicity, thus requiring specific values in each country. The study aims to develop age and gender specific WC and WHTR percentile curves for Thai youth. Method: This is a cross-sectional study based on th...

BACKGROUND Waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) are often used as indices predictive of central obesity. The aims of this study were: 1) to obtain smoothed centile charts and LMS tables for WC and WHtR among Colombian children and adolescents; 2) to evaluate the utility of these parameters as predictors of overweight and obesity. METHOD A cross-sectional study was conduct...

The aim of this study was to determine the associations between cardiovascular health and the waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). A cross-sectional study was performed recruiting 26701 middle-aged Chinese men. Of the seven ideal cardiovascular health metrics, body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol (TC), blood pressure (BP), and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were found to ...