Introduction:

In Cuba, there is no consensus about what value of the waist-hip ratio must be considered as a risk to identify dysglycemia.

Objectives:

To determine the cut-off point of the waist-hip ratio as a predictor of dysglycemias for both sexes, in people suspected of suffering from diabetes mellitus.

Methods:

Descriptive cross-sectional study with 975 people, including 523 women and 452 men. The sample was not obtained from general population and it was not random. The subjects underwent interrogation, physical examination and complementary studies. There were identified frequency distributions of qualitative and quantitative variables. It was used for the statistical processing the Pearson's correlation coefficient, logistic regression analysis and the curves analysis called Receiver Operator Characteristic. It was used the chi-square test to assess the statistical significance.

Results:

In both sexes, it was observed a directly proportional and significant correlation between the waist-hip ratio and the different variables studied, including: fasting and after 2 hours glycemia, fasting insulinemia, triglycerides, uric acid and the insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR). Cholesterol behaved the same way in men, but in women there was a weak and not significant correlation. The optimal cut-point of the waist-hip ratio, as an independent predictor of dysglycemia, was 0.85 in women and 0.93 in men. The waist-hip ratio presented a good predictive power to identify subjects with and without dysglycemia for both sexes and it was higher than that of the age.

Conclusions:

The optimal cut-point of the waist-hip ratio, as an independent predictor of dysglycemia, was 0.85 in women and 0.93 in men. Its power as predictor of dysglycemia was good.

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