Objective: To identify cut-off points for waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and BMI associated with hypertension in the Brazilian adult and elderly population.
Design: Cross-sectional study. The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the cut-off points of WC, WHtR and BMI in the prediction of hypertension. Those who had systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg and those who reported use of antihypertensive medication were considered hypertensive.
Setting: Brazil.ParticipantsParticipants from the National Health Survey, the Brazilian household-based survey conducted in 2013, of both sexes and age ≥20 years.
Results: Cut-off points for WC and WHtR increased with age in both sexes. WC cut-off limits ranged between 88·0 and 95·9 cm in men and between 85·0 and 93·2 cm in women. For WHtR, cut-off scores ranged from 0·51 to 0·58 for men and from 0·53 to 0·61 for women. Additionally, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) for all age and sex groups was greater than 0·60 while the lower limit of the AUC 95 % CI for both WC and WHtR was not less than 0·50. The performance of BMI was similar to that of indicators of fat location.
Conclusions: All analysed anthropometric indicators had similar performance in identifying hypertension in the Brazilian population.
Keywords: BMI; Hypertension; Waist circumference; Waist-to-height ratio.