{"doi":"10.3390/nu16223838","title":"Waist-to-Height Ratio Cut-Off Points for Central Obesity in Individuals with Overweight Across Different Ethnic Groups in NHANES 2011–2018","abstract":"<jats:p>Background: The identification of surrogate measures of central obesity is of clinical importance, and the waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) has recently attracted great interest as an alternative method. Objective: For this reason, we aimed to establish specific WtHR cut-off points for adiposity (i.e., central obesity) in four different ethnicity groups across both sexes based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) population. Methods: Of the total 23,037 participants who completed four cycles of the survey between the years 2011 and 2018, anthropometric measures (i.e., body weight, waist circumference, and height) and dual X-ray absorptiometry-derived visceral adipose tissue (DXA-derived VAT) results were available for 3566 individuals who were assessed in this cross-sectional study. Participants with an overweight status defined according to the World Health Organization (WHO) body mass index (BMI) cut-off points (25–29.9 kg/m2) were included. The sample was then categorized by adiposity according to the DXA-derived VAT tertiles (highest), and based on the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the best sensitivity and specificity were attained for predicting central obesity using the WtHR. Results: The following WtHR cut-offs were identified as having the best discriminating ability for central obesity: 0.57 for White males and 0.58 for White females; 0.55 for Black males and 0.57 for Black females; 0.56 for Asian males and 0.59 for Asian females; and 0.57 for Hispanic males and 0.59 for Hispanic females. Conclusions: These new WtHR cut-off points should be utilized in adults with overweight to screen for central adiposity based on their sex and ethnicity, and obesity guidelines therefore need to be revised accordingly.</jats:p>","journal":"Nutrients","year":2024,"id":618468,"datarank":0.4335557636844247,"base_score":2.8903717578961645,"endowment":2.8903717578961645,"self_citation_contribution":0.4335557636844247,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.4335557636844247,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":17,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1595509,"name":"Marwan El Ghoch","orcid":"0000-0003-4277-4752","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1595508,"name":"Leila Itani","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Waist-to-Height Ratio Cut-Off Points for Central Obesity in Individuals with Overweight Across Different Ethnic Groups in NHANES 2011–2018","abstract":"<jats:p>Background: The identification of surrogate measures of central obesity is of clinical importance, and the waist-to-height ratio (WtHR) has recently attracted great interest as an alternative method. Objective: For this reason, we aimed to establish specific WtHR cut-off points for adiposity (i.e., central obesity) in four different ethnicity groups across both sexes based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) population. Methods: Of the total 23,037 participants who completed four cycles of the survey between the years 2011 and 2018, anthropometric measures (i.e., body weight, waist circumference, and height) and dual X-ray absorptiometry-derived visceral adipose tissue (DXA-derived VAT) results were available for 3566 individuals who were assessed in this cross-sectional study. Participants with an overweight status defined according to the World Health Organization (WHO) body mass index (BMI) cut-off points (25–29.9 kg/m2) were included. The sample was then categorized by adiposity according to the DXA-derived VAT tertiles (highest), and based on the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the best sensitivity and specificity were attained for predicting central obesity using the WtHR. Results: The following WtHR cut-offs were identified as having the best discriminating ability for central obesity: 0.57 for White males and 0.58 for White females; 0.55 for Black males and 0.57 for Black females; 0.56 for Asian males and 0.59 for Asian females; and 0.57 for Hispanic males and 0.59 for Hispanic females. Conclusions: These new WtHR cut-off points should be utilized in adults with overweight to screen for central adiposity based on their sex and ethnicity, and obesity guidelines therefore need to be revised accordingly.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":2.772588722239781,"endowment":2.772588722239781,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"39599624","pmcid":"PMC11597241","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4404284583","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":6.4259,"citation_percentile":0.9751057,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2024,"count":1},{"year":2025,"count":7},{"year":2026,"count":7}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/22/3838/pdf?version=1731316680","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/22/3838/pdf?version=1731316680","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/16/22/3838/pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16223838","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39599624","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/11597241","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://hdl.handle.net/11380/1364848","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11597241/pdf/nutrients-16-03838.pdf","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC11597241","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC11597241?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["Bariatric Surgery and Outcomes","Diabetes, Cardiovascular Risks, and Lipoproteins","Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet","Adult","Aged","Female","Humans","Male","Middle Aged","Young Adult","Absorptiometry, Photon","Adiposity","Body Mass Index","Cross-Sectional Studies","Hispanic or Latino","Intra-Abdominal Fat","Nutrition Surveys","Obesity, Abdominal","Overweight","Waist Circumference","Waist-Height Ratio","White","Black or African American","Asian"],"mesh_terms":["White","Adult","Aged","Asian","Black or African American","Cross-Sectional Studies","Ethnicity","Female","Hispanic or Latino","Humans","Male","Middle Aged","Nutrition Surveys","Absorptiometry, Photon","Body Mass Index","Intra-Abdominal Fat","Adiposity","Overweight","Waist Circumference","Young Adult","Obesity, Abdominal","Waist-Height Ratio"],"keywords":["National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey","Waist","Medicine","Overweight","Anthropometry","Body mass index","Obesity","Waist-to-height ratio","Demography","Population","Classification of obesity","Body fat percentage","Cross-sectional study","Gerontology","Internal medicine","Fat mass","Environmental health","Pathology","Body composition","BMI","Body fat","visceral adipose tissue"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-03T04:29:54.531613Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}