20-05-2025
The 10-second test that reveals if you're at risk of common heart problem that leads to slow, agonising death
A simple measurement can help determine whether you are at risk of deadly heart failure, new research has suggested.
Obesity and a high body mass index (BMI) has long been known to raise the chances of developing the agonising disease.
But now scientists have found that a person's waist size could be a better indicator of risk, as it measures the most harmful type of fat that gathers around the internal organs.
Heart failure weakens the organ's ability to pump blood around the body effectively, usually as a result of the heart becoming too weak or stiff, increasing the chances of a fatal cardiac arrest.
The most common symptoms of the condition include breathlessness, extreme fatigue, feeling lightheaded or fainting and swollen legs and ankles.
Dr Amra Jujic, from Lund University, Sweden, who is behind the latest research, explained that where you carry fat —rather than how much you weigh—is a more crucial predictor of whether or not you'll develop heart failure.
He said: 'BMI is the most common measure of obesity, but it is influenced by factors such as sex and ethnicity, and does not take into account the distribution of body fat.
'Waist-to-height ration is considered a more robust measure of central adiposity [fat].'
This measurement can be determined at home using a tape measure, by dividing your waist measurement by your height, to discover your waist to height ratio (WHtR).
Health professionals say your waist should be less than half your height, with a healthy waist-to-height ratio being between 0.4 and 0.49.
Studies have long shown that people who carry excess belly fat face higher risks of heart disease, type two diabetes and strokes.
The new findings, which found a positive correlation between waist-to-height ratio and heart failure risk, were presented at congress of the European Society of Cardiology.
The study tracked 1,792 people aged 45-73 for 12 years as part of the Malmö Preventive health Project.
Participants were chosen so that there was an equal representation of people with normal blood glucose levels, prediabetes and diabetes.
All participants were followed up to see if they'd suffered heart failure.
The average waist-to-height ratio was 0.57—above the healthy range—and 71 per cent of the cohort was male.
During the 12 year follow-up, 132 people developed heart failure, which can come on suddenly or gradually over weeks or months, known as chronic heart failure.
The researchers found that people who had a higher waist-to-height ratio were significantly more likely to experience heart failure, regardless of their BMI.
Those who had an average waist-to-height ratio of 0.65 or higher were nearly three times more likely to develop the condition.
Dr Jujic said: 'Our results suggest that waist-to-height ratio may be a better metric than BMI to identify patients with heart failure who could benefit from therapies for obesity.
'Our next step is to investigate whether waist-to-height-ratio predicts other heart disorders in a larger cohort.'
Having more fat in the abdominal area—medically known as visceral fat—has also been linked to harm in numerous parts of the body.
Researchers recently found that women with high levels of this type of fat were 60 per cent more likely than those with lower levels to suffer chronic pain.
It comes as the rate of obesity in Britain continues to balloon, with two thirds of all adults now overweight. This compares to just half in the mid-90s.
Of the two-thirds overweight, about a quarter are obese.
In terms of obesity, this is equivalent to 16.8million people, an estimated 8million women, 7.4million men, 760,000 boys and 590,000 girls.
Experts have blamed the nation's ever-expanding waistline on the simultaneous rise of ultra-processed food and modern sedentary, desk-bound lifestyles.
