Relationship between waist-to-hip ratio and coronary heart disease risk factors in a population of Southern Italy

AIM: To evaluate the relationship between body mass index (BMI), body fat distribution and some coronary heart disease risk factors like hyperlipidemia, hypertension and cigarette smoking. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional. PLACE: Tiriolo, a little town close to Catanzaro, of prevalent rural economy. PARTICIPANTS: Volunteers, both males and females, aged more than 30 years and living in Tiriolo. MEASUREMENTS: Body weight and height with subjects in ordinary street clothes and without shoes. Systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by a zero-random sphygmomanometer. Total (TC) and HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) using fingerstick capillary sample technology by a Cholestech analyzer. Waist circumference (W), measured midway between the lower rib margin and the iliac crest, and hip circumference (H) measured at the widest point over the greater trocanthers. Smoking habit by questionnaire. RESULTS: Females had higher values of SBP, DBP, BMI and HDL-C and lower of TC/HDL-C ratio and W/H ratio. Age was similar in both sexes. Females had lower prevalence of hyperlipidemia and cigarette smoking and higher prevalence of hypertension. BMI was strongly associated to blood pressure levels whereas W/H ratio was correlated to TC/HDL-C ratio. CONCLUSION: BMI and W/H ratio give complementary information, useful to assess the cardiovascular risk profile. The simplicity and quickness of these measurements should lead to their large utilization both in epidemiological prevention studies and everyday clinical practice