Doctors have long thought that people with an 'apple' figure - a tendency to store fat around the belly rather than the hips - were at a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.
In 2005 a study found that having a higher waist-to-hip ratio - in other words being an 'apple' - was three times more powerful an indicator of heart attack risk, than simply being overweight.
But now an analysis of records from 220,000 people in 58 studies, each monitored for over a decade, has cast doubt on this finding.
It discovered that having a higher waist-to-hip ratio was no better a predictor of heart disease and stroke risk than being generally overweight, as measured by body mass index (BMI).
BMI is calculated by dividing one's weight in kilograms by the square of one's height in metres.
The international group of scientists, led by Cambridge University, concluded in The Lancet that their findings "reliably refute" previous recommendations to measure waist-to-hip ratios rather than BMI.
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