Background: Excess total body fat causes low-grade systemic inflammation that precedes cardiometabolic damage. Plycometry is a widely accepted method for measuring total body fat, but not all physicians are trained to do it. The waist-to-height ratio is simpler to assess and has been recognized as a predictor of cardiovascular risk, but not as an indicator of total body fat. This study evaluated whether plycometry can be substituted by this ratio, and thus make an early intervention on systemic inflammation without having to be trained in plycometry.
Methods: Cross-sectional study based on a clinical trial of 40 patients who underwent a 14-week weight loss intervention. As part of the evaluations, weight, height, waist circumference and total body fat were obtained, which are the variables analyzed in this study. Pearson's correlation test was performed in duplicate: before and after the intervention. In all cases a p<0.05 was considered significant.
Results: The waist-to-height ratio correlated moderately with total body fat (R=0.7) before the intervention. At the end of the intervention the correlation increased to strong (R=0.8). When stratifying by body mass index grades, a trend of higher correlation was observed in the body mass index group between 25 and 26.9 kg/m2 (0.7 before and 0.85 after the intervention, respectively).
Conclusions: The waist-to-height ratio is not a substitute for plycometry, but it can be useful in predicting a low-grade systemic inflammatory state, especially in patients with a body mass index under 27 kg/m2. Further research is needed to assess the cutoff point at which low-grade systemic inflammation begins, so that more accurate information can be provided for intervention based on waist-to-height ratio.
weight-height ratio, total fat mass, BMI, cardiometabolic risk, obesity
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