Waist-to-height ratio and coronary artery disease in Taiwanese type 2 diabetic patients.

Waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), waist-to-height ratio (WHeiR), and BMI are indicators for obesity. This study examined the usefulness of these indicators for coronary artery disease (CAD) in Taiwanese type 2 diabetic patients. A total of 1,345 (646 men and 699 women) patients aged 63.3 +/- 11.5 years were studied. CAD was defined by history or Minnesota-coded electrocardiogram. The relative importance was evaluated by the magnitude of adjusted odds ratio per 1-s.d. increment, the decrease in -2 log likelihood after adding the index to the logistic model, the c-index, and the Akaiki's information criterion (AIC). Results showed that the four indices were highly intercorrelated and except BMI for men, all indices differed significantly between patients with and without CAD in either sex. In logistic regressions, the respective adjusted odds ratios for WC, WHR, WHeiR, and BMI for every 1-s.d. increment were 1.209 (1.010-1.448), 1.109 (0.935-1.316), 1.231 (1.027-1.474), and 1.207 (0.997-1.461) for men; and were 1.176 (0.995-1.390), 1.105 (0.923-1.322), 1.280 (1.079-1.518), and 1.277 (1.083-1.507) for women. Only WHeiR was significant for both sexes and it also showed the greatest decrease in -2 log likelihood, the largest magnitude of odds ratio, and the smallest AIC while compared with the other indices in either sex. It is concluded that WHeiR has the superiority of independent association with CAD and the highest magnitude of association than WC, WHR, and BMI in both sexes. The usefulness of WHeiR should not be neglected in clinical practice.