Found it hereWaist-hip ratio best predictor of heart risk
Avis Favaro, CTV News
Researchers say they've found a better way of measuring obesity and a person's risk of getting a heart attack than the method used by doctors worldwide for years.
A Canadian-led study in Friday's issue of The Lancet medical journal says that the standard measure of obesity, called the body-mass index (BMI), doesn't work as well as measuring how big a person's waist is compared to their hips.
Drawing data from 27,098 people from 52 countries, the study concluded that the waist-to-hip ratio is three times more accurate at predicting a person's risk of heart attack than a person's BMI.
BMI (based on a person's weight and height) takes no notice of where a person's fat lies or how muscular that person may be, says Dr. Arya Sharma, co-author of the study and a professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
Therefore, a well-muscled athlete and an obese person could have similar BMI scores.
"If we are going to try to prevent heart disease, your focus has to be on waist circumference, not just weight," Sharma told CTV News.
Previous research has drawn a correlation between obesity and heart disease. But most of those studies focused on populations in Europe and North America.
For the Interheart study, McMaster professor of medicine Dr. Salim Yusuf and his team aimed to find out whether other indicators for obesity, especially waist-to-hip ratio, would better predict heart disease in different ethnic populations than BMI.
The waist-to-hip ratio, says Yusuf, "is easier to measure and it is more powerful; and this is why it should be used."
Yusuf says the study confirms earlier findings that fat around the abdomen is a bad omen: it's linked to heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure.
The study also found:
* BMI was only slightly higher in heart attack patients than in control groups, with no difference in the Middle East and South Asia.
* In contrast, heart attack patients had a far higher waist-to-hip ratio than control groups, irrespective of other cardiovascular risk factors. This observation was consistent in men and women, across all ages, and in all regions of the world.
Therefore, larger waist size (reflected in the amount of abdominal fat) was harmful; whereas larger hip size (which could indicate the amount of lower body muscle) was protective.
Researchers suggest a two-part strategy based on their findings: trim the area around the waist; and possibly boost hip size by increasing muscle mass or redistributing fat.
BMI backers
But some experts say further studies are needed before we can do away with BMI for good.
Calgary pediatrician Dr. Peter Nieman says unless you know what you're doing, it's difficult to be consistently accurate in measuring waist-to-hip ratio.
"We already have a lot of physicians struggling, both in pediatrics and adulthood, to monitor a patient's BMI. And for them to do a hip-to-waist ratio routinely is going to be difficult," Nieman told CTV News. "I think it's going to be much easier to routinely measure the BMI."
Indeed, both the World Health Organization and the U.S. Center for Disease Control still hold the BMI as the gold standard for measuring obesity.
And Nieman adds that the waist-to-hip study pertains only to adults; for children, he says, "the jury is not yet out."
"It's going to be very important to do more research. It's still a little bit early to say we've driven the nail into the coffin of the BMI," said Nieman.
Others, however, think the latest study should be enough to encourage doctors to add a measuring tape to their medical tools.
Charlotte Krageland of the University of Oslo, Norway went so far as to call the current practice with BMI "obsolete" in light of the study's findings.
"For the assessment of risk associated with obesity, the waist-to-hip ratio, and not the body mass index, is the preferred simple measure," he wrote in a statement.
How to calculate waist-to-hip ratio
Figuring out your risk is simple. Using a tape measure:
* Measure your hips.
* Measure your waist.
* Then divide the waist number by the hip number.
For a healthy woman: the total should be under 0.85
For a healthy man: the total should be below point 0.90
(A 30-inch waist and 36-inch hips would work out to a favorable 0.83, or 83 percent.)
Note:
WAIST: The waist measurement is taken at the narrowest waist level, or if this is not apparent, at the mid point between the lowest rib and the top of the hip bone (illiac crest)
HIP: The hip measurement is taken over minimal clothing, and is at the level of the greatest protrusion of the gluteal (buttock) muscles.
Well, OK. Breaks out measuring tape
I'm over by a few .01s !!! Not by much, but hey, I'm net sure if I wanted to know this... clearly there must be some mistake.
Sorry if posted before.
