Waist-to-height ratio

• Crude = results weighted for season, age, sex and socioeconomic status
• Although the cut-off value of 0.50 has been widely applied in children to predict cardiometabolic risk, the optimal cut-off value is still under discussion, potentially requiring specific cut-offs for different populations.
• Older adults (65 years and above) do not include institutionalised (including those in care homes) or hospitalised individuals, or those who could not be interviewed without assistance (e.g., individuals with dementia).

• The health risk decreases between childhood (29%) and adolescence (18%), and progressively increases during young (48%), middle-aged (73%), and older adulthood (89%).
• In children and adolescents there are no differences by sex, but differences do appear in adulthood.
• Adult men have a higher health risk associated with abdominal obesity than women. In older adults, 96% of men have a health risk, compared to 84% of women.

• Crude = results weighted for season, age, sex and socioeconomic status.
• Although the cut-off value of 0.50 has been widely applied in children to predict cardiometabolic risk, the optimal cut-off value is still under discussion, potentially requiring specific cut-offs for different populations.
• The educational level is calculated at the household level by considering the highest diploma obtained by: (i) the respondents or their partner for adults (aged 18 years and above), or (ii) the father and mother (or carer, if applicable) for children and adolescents (aged 3 to 17 years). However, for simplicity, we refer to the education level of individuals rather than the education level of their households.

• The health risk related to abdominal obesity is lower for those with a higher level of education: 67% are at risk among the low-educated, compared to 57% among the mid-educated and 45% among the highly educated.

   

• Adjusted = results weighted for season, age, sex and socioeconomic status, and adjusted according to age and sex  based on linear regression model (using the Belgian population of 2022-2023 as reference).
• Although the cut-off value of 0.50 has been widely applied in children to predict cardiometabolic risk, the optimal cut-off value is still under discussion, potentially requiring specific cut-offs for different populations.

• The health risk related to abdominal obesity in the population aged 3 to 64 years old is higher in Brussels than in Flanders.
• Overall, the health risk did not change in the Belgian population aged 3 to 64 years between 2014-2015 and 2022-2023.
• At the regional level in the Belgian population aged 3 to 64 years, the risk increased in Brussels, decreased in Wallonia and did not change in Flanders between 2014-2015 and 2022-2023.