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Waist-Hip Ratio

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior
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Synonyms

Waist to hip ratio

Definition

It is the ratio of perimeter of waist to the hip.

Waist-Hip Ratio

Fat is one of the most important constituent of diet. However, fat deposition in the body could be harmful to health among all the people irrespective of age, sex, and ethnicity. Fat tends to deposit in abdomen and hip than any other place in the body, for both male and females. Waist-hip ratio is a significant health parameter, and it relates with serious health problems. Waist-hip ratio describes distribution of harmful fat around abdominal region (visceral fat). Overweight and obesity are often found to be related to major human disorders responsible for several deaths worldwide like diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases, and several other disorders (Emery et al. 1993).

Nowadays, doctors consider waist-hip ratio along with body mass index (BMI) for determining fat distribution. Some consider it as better parameter than BMI (as it fails to predict body fat distribution), which...

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References

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Correspondence to Vivek Kumar .

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Kumar, V. (2019). Waist-Hip Ratio. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1930-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1930-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

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