Waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio and overweight cut-off points: a cross-sectional study with elderly people in seven Brazilian cities, 2008-2009

Objective to identify cut-off points for waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) with better sensitivity, specificity and accuracy to distinguish overweight elderly people by sex, using three body mass index criteria as anthropometric references. Methods this was a cross-sectional study that analyzed weight, height and WC measurements of 3,477 elderly people (2008-2009); receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to define the cut-off points. Results WC cut-off points were 86.5cm, 88.7cm and 91.5cm in women, and 93.0cm, 96.0cm and 97.5cm in men, according to World Health Organization/WHO, Nutrition Screening Initiative/NSI and Pan American Health Organization/PAHO criteria, respectively; WHtR cut-off points corresponded to 0.57, 0.58, 0.59 in the female sex, and 0.56, 0.58 and 0.59 in the male sex; highest absolute overall accuracy values: PAHO (men) and WHO (women). Conclusion WC and WHtR cut-off points were similar, regardless of the BMI criterion adopted.