Big Waist Risky Even for Thin Heart Patients

For people with heart disease, having a big waist may be worse than having a high overall weight, a new study suggests. The study put together numbers from 5 earlier studies. Everyone in the studies had coronary artery disease, a narrowing inside the arteries of the heart. The studies included about 15,000 people. Their average age was 66. Researchers measured their body mass index (BMI), a measurement of weight compared with height. They also measured waist-to-hip ratio. This is equal to waist size divided by hip size. Doctors use this measurement to estimate belly fat. Researchers kept track of people for about 5 years. In that time, nearly 4,700 died. People who had a normal BMI but a larger waist were 27% more likely to die than people who were obese but carried less weight in the belly. The Journal of the American College of Cardiology published the study.