A seven-year prospective study of relationship between waist circumference to height ratio and metabolic syndrome

Objective To assess the waist circumference to height ratio(WHtR) as an abdominal obesity index in predicting the risk of metabolic syndrome.Methods A total of 558 obesity residents aged 35-55 years were selected as the subjects who underwent medical examination in Shijiazhuang in 2000 and did not suffer from hypertension,hyperlipidemia,T2DM,impaired glucose tolerance and other chronic desease.The subjects(n=511) were followed up in 2007.The relationship between WHtR and the risk of metabolic syndrome were analyzed according to the follow-up data.The logistic regression analysis was used to study the predictive value of WHtR,waist circumference(WC),body mass index(BMI),waist hip ratio(WHR) to metabolic syndrome.Results WC,WHR,BP,total cholesterol(TC),triglycerides(TG) in WHtR≥0.5 group were significantly higher than those in WHtR0.5 group in base level(P0.01 or 0.05),BMI,low-density lipoprotein cholesterol(LDL-C),high-density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C) between two groups were no differences in base level.The subjects were followed up in 2007.The incidence of metabolic syndrome in WHtR≥0.5 group was higher than in WHtR0.5 group(42.7% vs 14.4%,P0.01).TC,TG,LDL-C in WHtR≥0.5 group were significantly higher than those in WHtR0.5 group and HDL was significantly lower than that in WHtR0.5 group(P0.01 or 0.05).The correlation between WHtR and WC(rmale=0.951,rfemale=0.962) was significantly higher than BMI and WHR(rmale=0.768,0.823,rfemale=0.707,0.752).Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that WHtR,WC,BMI,WHR entered into equation odds ratio(OR=3.686,3.533,1.751,1.956).Conclusion WHtR significantly correlates with WC and can serve as an effective abdominal obesity index,which can predict the risk of metabolic syndrome.