Waist-to-Height Ratio

Women had a higher waist-to-height ratio than men in the study sample. Waist-to-height ratio generally performed numerically better than BMI but was not statistically superior in the reported comparisons. For hypertension prediction, waist-to-height ratio AUC was higher in women than men. The waist-to-height index is presented as a stronger cardiometabolic risk indicator than BMI or waist circumference alone. The study aligns with prior work finding similar predictive ability of BMI and waist-to-height ratio for hypertension. Waist-to-height ratio was calculated by dividing waist circumference in centimetres by height in centimetres. A WHIA value above 0.6 indicates high risk that requires clinical intervention. WHIA estimates abdominal adiposity and predicts risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. The authors recommend routine primary-care use of WHIA to improve cardiometabolic risk detection.