A waist-to-height ratio of 0.54 is a good predictor of metabolic syndrome in 16-year-old male and female adolescents.

BACKGROUND

We aimed to determine the sensitivity and specificity of selected anthropometric indicators as predictors of cardiovascular risk in adolescents.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study in 678 adolescents (16.8 y ± 0.3) from an infancy cohort. Weight, height, waist circumference (WC), and hip circumference were measured. Body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were estimated. MetS was diagnosed with IDF/AHA/NHLBI. Optimal cutoffs of BMI, WC, WHR, and WHtR for diagnosing MetS were determined using ROC analysis.

RESULTS

In males, WHtR (0.96) had the greatest area under the ROC curve, followed by WC (0.95) and BMI (0.93). In females, BMI (0.84) had the greatest area under the ROC curve (0.84), followed by WHtR (0.83) and WC (0.83). In both sexes, the optimal WHtR cutoff for MetS diagnosis was 0.54. A BMI of 26.9 in males and 26.3 in females were the optimal cutoffs for diagnosing MetS. Finally, WC values of 92 and 81.6 cm in males and females, respectively, were the optimal cutoffs for MetS diagnosis.

CONCLUSIONS

In both sexes, a WHtR value of 0.54 was a good predictor of MetS. In males and females, the optimal cutoff of BMI for Mets diagnosis was below the values for diagnosing obesity.