Indexing adult obesity by waist-to-height and weight-to-height ratios

Abstract

To date a vast evidence exists that the waist circumference to height ratio (WCHR) provides a better measure of obesity comparing to the body mass index (BMI). While weight and height are routinely obtained to calculate BMI, waist circumference, despite easily acquired, is often overlooked because the screening protocols, particularly for diabetes, demand BMI. This creates an obstacle for application of WCHR - a more definite measure than BMI for diagnostic of many linked to obesity metabolic disorders such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension. This article is intended to fill the gap in the literature by providing a conversion from BMI to WCHR for five adult age categories. A strong linearity between the measures is demonstrated and equivalent to BMI WCHR thresholds are provided to identify normality, overweight as well as obesity and other points. The analysis is based on the data from NHANES. Different forms of BMI are also discussed and a strong linearity between them is demonstrated. An obesity index based on simple weight to height ratio to match the standard levels is proposed. The equivalence between the proposed and existing obesity indices is tested on the original data with promising results.