Waist‐to‐height ratio is independently related to whole and central body fat, regardless of the waist circumference measurement protocol, in non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease patients

Abstract

Background

Waist‐to‐height ratio (WH tR) has been reported as a preferable risk related body fat (BF ) marker, although no standardised waist circumference measurement protocol (WC mp) has been proposed. The present study aimed to investigate whether the use of a different WC mp affects the strength of relationship between WH tR and both whole and central BF in non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD ) patients.

Methods

BF was assessed with dual energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA ) in 28 NAFLD patients [19 males, mean (SD) 51 (13) years and nine females, 47 (13) years]. All subjects also underwent anthropometric evaluation including height and waist circumference (WC ) measurement using four different WC mp (WC 1, minimal waist; WC 2, iliac crest; WC 3, mid‐distance between iliac crest and lowest rib; WC 4, at the umbilicus) and WH tR was calculated using each WC measurements (WH tR1, WH tR2, WH tR3 and WH tR4, respectively). Partial correlations were conducted to assess the relation of WH tR and DXA assessed BF .

Results

All WH tR were particularly correlated with central BF , including abdominal BF (r  = 0.80, r  = 0.84, r  = 0.84 and r  = 0.78, respectively, for WH tR1, WH tR2, WH tR3 and WH tR4) and central abdominal BF (r  = 0.72, r  = 0.77, r  = 0.76 and r  = 0.71, respectively, for WH tR1, WH tR2, WH tR3 and WH tR4), after controlling for age, sex and body mass index. There were no differences between the correlation coefficients obtained between all studied WH tR and each whole and central BF variable.

Conclusions

Waist‐to‐height ratio was found a suitable BF marker in the present sample of NAFLD patients and the strength of the relationship between WH tR and both whole and central BF was not altered by using different WC mp in the present sample of NAFLD patients.