Predictive values of waist-to-height ratio for metabolic syndrome

Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) has been shown to be a valuable predictor of cardiometabolic risk. Most studies recommend value of 0.5 as the predictive value for both genders and for all age groups. Considering body height changes with aging and gender-dependent differences in patterns of fat distribution with aging, the main purpose of this study was to assess ageand gender-specific predictive values of WHtR for metabolic syndrome. A total of 1517 subjects (725 men and 792 women) aged 18 to 67y (BMI: 16.60-64.60 kg/m2) were included in the study. According to IDF criteria for metabolic syndrome predictive values of WHtR were calculated for each age-category and both genders. WHtR showed higher predictive values in men than in women. In men, predictive values increase with aging from 0.52 (<30y) to 0.57 (≥60y), while in women they remain the same with aging (0.53). The accuracy of prediction was higher in older subjects. Comparing to WC, WHtR showed higher accuracy in determination of risky metabolic profile, while WC was better in identification of healthy metabolic profile. Our results revealed gender-specific predictive values of WhtR. In men, they show age-dependent dynamics. WHtR showed better performance than WC in the prediction of metabolic syndrome.