The hypertriglyceridemic waist, waist-to-height ratio, and cardiometabolic risk

To investigate whether the hypertriglyceridemic waist (HW) phenotype and waist-to-height ratio (WHTR) are associated with cardiometabolic disorders in children and adolescents.

This was a cross-sectional design study. Anthropometry, biochemical variables, and cardiorespiratory fitness were assessed in 234 participants (122 girls) aged 10-19 years from Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. The HW phenotype was defined as a waist circumference ≥90(th) percentile for age and sex, and triglyceride concentrations ≥1.24 mmol/L, and a high WHTR defined as >0.5. ANCOVA and logistic regression were used in the analysis.

In participants with the HW phenotype, the odds of having high cardiorespiratory fitness (mL/kg/min) were lower (0.045; 95% CI 0.01, 0.42), and the odds of having low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (4.41; 1.50, 12.91), impaired fasting glucose (3.37; 1.06, 10.72), and ≥1 (4.78; 1.32, 17.29) and ≥2 risk factors (7.16; 2.38, 21.54) were higher than those without the phenotype. Those with a high WHTR had higher odds of having low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (2.57; 1.11, 5.95), high diastolic blood pressure (3.21; 1.25, 8.25), and ≥2 risk factors (5.57; 2.05, 15.17) than those with normal WHTR.

The HW phenotype may be a better simple marker than WHTR for identifying children and adolescents at risk for cardiometabolic disorders.