Little evidence exists regarding the association between waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and cardiovascular risk (CVR) factors in Mexican adults. Our study pursued a twofold objective: To describe the association between a high WHtR and CVR indicators among Mexican adults canvassed by the 2016 Half-Way National Health and Nutrition Survey, and to examine the interaction of sex and age on this association. We analyzed data from the adult sample (≥20 years old) and classified in two groups using WHtRs ≥0.5 considered high and low otherwise. The following CVR factors were analyzed: High-total-cholesterol (≥200 mg/dL), low high-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c < 40 mg/dL), high low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c ≥ 130 mg/dL), high triglycerides (≥150 mg/dL), insulin resistance (IR) (HOMA-IR) (≥2.6), and hypertension (HBP) (≥140/≥90 mmHg). We estimated prevalence ratios (PR) to analyze the association between high WHtRs and CVR indicators. Over 90% of participants had high WHtRs and were at greater risk for dyslipidemias, HBP, and IR compared to those that had low WHtRs. PR for men with high WHtRs were between 1.3 to 2.3 for dyslipidemias, 3.4 for HBP and 7.6 for IR; among women were between 1.8 to 2.4 for dyslipidemias and HBP and 5.9 for IR (p < 0.05). A high WHtR is associated with CVR factors in Mexican adults.
Keywords: abdominal obesity; adults; cardiovascular risk; surveys; waist-to-height ratio.