Study published in The Lancet suggests indicators to help accurately diagnose high blood pressure

An international study published in the prestigious journal The Lancet, involving a collaborative network of more than 500 scientists worldwide, aimed to understand how Body Mass Index (BMI) and Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR) can help distinguish between individuals with and without a diagnosis of high blood pressure (hypertension).

The research highlights that these indicators—BMI and WHtR—are useful in differentiating between those with and without high blood pressure. However, it cautions that there are variations across different regions when analysing this health condition.

The researchers analysed data from 837 previous epidemiological studies involving about 7.5 million adults aged 20-64 from 181 countries. The aim was to understand the relationship between BMI and waist-to-height ratio between 1990 and 2023.

BMI is a measure that uses information on weight and height according to age and can help identify problems related to malnutrition and/or obesity. WHtR uses information on waist circumference and height to analyse fat distribution and the potential risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

The research was conducted by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration network of health scientists, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), and coordinated by Imperial College London. It involved three researchers from the University of Coimbra (UC): Aristides Machado-Rodrigues, a professor at the Faculty of Sports Science and Physical Education; Cristina Padez, a professor in the Department of Life Sciences at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, and coordinator of the Research Centre for Anthropology and Health (CIAS); and Helena Nogueira, a professor in the Department of Geography and Tourism, and a researcher at CIAS and the Centre for Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning (CEGOT).

The study reveals that "Body Mass Index can be used as an indicator with moderate to high accuracy for differentiating young and middle-aged adults with higher and lower levels of abdominal adiposity." However, the UC researchers explain that "for the same BMI value, individuals from South Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Central Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, have higher waist-to-height ratio values compared to other regions of the globe."

This finding could, in the future, "justify differentiated screening cut-off values if, at the primary health care level, specific abdominal adiposity limits are considered according to gender and geographical region," said Aristides Machado-Rodrigues, Cristina Padez, and Helena Nogueira.

The scientific article General and abdominal adiposity and hypertension in eight world regions: a pooled analysis of 837 population-based studies with 7-5 million participants is available here.

^{Translation: Diana Taborda}