Research
Mixed
Waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) is a significant predictor of ASCVD risk in individuals with ideal cardiovascular health, whereas BMI is not, suggesting that body fat distribution is more critical than total body weight for risk assessment in this group.
If you are metabolically healthy, your waist-to-hip ratio is a better predictor of heart disease risk than your weight. Consider tracking your waist and hip measurements to assess your risk, as visceral fat is more harmful than subcutaneous fat.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
When we used the waist-to-hip ratio instead of the BMI, a dose-response relationship between the WHR and ASCVD risk was obtained in healthier participants.
Why this rating
Large cohort, observational design.
Source
Sex-specific impact of body weight on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease incidence in individuals with and without ideal cardiovascular health
Audrey Paulin et al. · medRxiv · 2023
DOI 10.1101/2023.01.16.23284627
preprint · n=319866
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
Related findings · Mixed
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