The  prospective Nurses Health Study set out to assess the impact of factors such as waist circumference in determining risk of CHD in a cohort of 44,702 US female registered nurses, aged 40 to 65 years, recruited between 1986 and 1994. Study subjects were free of prior CHD at baseline.

During 8 years of follow-up, there was a direct, independent and continuous relationship between waist circumference and age-adjusted risk of CHD.