Waist-height and waist-hip ratio in the prediction of cardiovascular risk: a cross- sectional study in a primary health care unit

Objective: to compare the prediction of cardiovascular risk of two anthropometric measures (waist-height ratio and waist-hip ratio) to the gold standard metabolic syndrome. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, analytical and descriptive study was conducted in a primary health care unit in northeastern Brazil. The sample was composed of 198 patients, obtained by convenience. The data collected were: sociodemographic, biochemical tests, presence of comorbidities and anthropometric data for calculation of body mass index, waist-height ratio, waist-hip ratio and conicity index. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare averages. Binary and multivariate logistic regression was performed to verify the association. The ROC curve analysis (AUC) was used to predict cardiovascular risk. The agreement between the methods was tested with the Kappa agreement test. It was considered significant p < 0.05. Results and Discussion: Both relationships showed a similar ability to identify individuals at risk, using the metabolic syndrome standard. However, the waist-hip ratio showed better agreement and performance. The waist-hip ratio presented a direct and significant association with: overweight by body mass index, risk by waist circumference and conicity index, presence of metabolic syndrome and diabetes. The waistheight ratio was directly and significantly associated with: overweight, risk for waist circumference and conicity index, presence of systemic arterial hypertension. Conclusion: This study demonstrated a good predictive power of waist-height and waist-hip relationships in the identification of cardiovascular risk.