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How Do You Measure Up? BMI versus Waist to Height Ratio
Author(s) -
Smolinski Kasia,
Ward Taketa,
Hall Brandon,
Hurst Sarah Elizabeth
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2018.32.1_supplement.670.35
Subject(s) - waist , overweight , underweight , medicine , body mass index , obesity , circumference , demography , waist to height ratio , type 2 diabetes , diabetes mellitus , gerontology , physical therapy , endocrinology , mathematics , geometry , sociology
For many years, clinical screening rationale for issues such as obesity or type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been the body mass index (BMI) calculation. Our research as well as many others show that a more useful measurement of an individual's health and risk for disease is the waist to height ratio (WtHR). In this study, we measured height, weight, and waist circumference of 65 participants, calculated both BMI and WtHR, and analyzed the data. Using the BMI calculations, our results showed that most males were overweight [F (7, 14) = 3.147, p = 0.03], while most females were classified as normal [F (7, 14) = 3.474, p = 0.02]. However, using WtHR measurements, distributions changed for both men and women. Males were more normal [F (7, 28) = 2.263, p = 0.06], while females were more evenly distributed with some being slender/underweight and others were highly obese [F (7, 28) = 11.77, p < 0.0001]. Evaluating co‐morbidities using both BMI and WtHR, obese males report more medical issues then their normal and overweight peers. For the females, both the obese and highly obese report more co‐morbidities; both sexes had more people who reported no medical issues. Taken together, using more accurate measurements as health indicators will aid physicians and health care professionals in making better, cost‐effective decisions regarding patient treatment. Furthermore, many institutions including NIH have already transitioned into using the WtHR. Support or Funding Information Funding provided by donations to The ATP10A Project. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .