The association between waist to height ratio and cardiopulmonary disease

Introduction: Many studies have investigated the correlation of BMI and morbidities. Previous studies have elucidated waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) as a more suitable predictor of cardiovascular risk factors than BMI. BMI is limited due to neglecting the abdominal circumference. With this data we believe that WHtR is correlated with causes of death (COD) from cardiopulmonary diseases vs. non cardiopulmonary diseases in cadavers. Methods: Cadavers were measured for their waist to height ratio using measuring tape and rulers. The cadavers’ height was measured in inches from top to bottom with the very tip of the head being the top and the plantar surface of the calcaneus being the bottom with the measuring tape. The ruler was used to mark the two end points for height. The waist was measured around the top point of two anterior superior iliac spine points and wrapping the measuring tape around the body based on those two points. Inclusion criteria for COD were divided into cardiopulmonary and non-cardiopulmonary for statistical analysis. Results:Power analysis value yielded 0.907 with two groups categorized as cardiopulmonary vs. non-cardiopulmonary. Cardiopulmonary COD group (n=33) had a mean of 0.6218 with a standard deviation of 0.07988 whereas the non-cardiopulmonary COD group (n=30) had a mean of 0.5596 with a standard deviation of 0.06676. Two sample t-tests showed a significant difference between the means of the cardiopulmonary group vs. non-cardiopulmonary group p Discussion: Results indicate that cadavers with cardiopulmonary COD showed greater mean than the cadavers with non-cardiopulmonary COD. This is consistent with other research on the correlation between cardiopulmonary disease and increased WHtR. Looking at the distribution of data between the groups, cadavers with cardiopulmonary COD had higher minimum and maximum value as well as each value of the data set generally being higher than the values for the cadavers with non-cardiopulmonary COD