The larger someone's waist gets, the higher his risk of heart failure, according to a new study at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

The study looked at people who had reached middle age.

Even people who have a body-mass index in the normal range have a greater risk if their bellies get bigger, researchers said in a news release.

Heart failure occurs when the heart can't pump enough blood to supply the body. It is often caused by high blood pressure or coronary artery disease.

"By any measure -- BMI, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio or waist-to-height ratio -- our findings showed that excess body weight was associated with higher rates of heart failure," said Emily Levitan, the study's first author.

Even among women with the same BMI -- 25, in the normal range -- a waist that was 10 centimeters larger raised the risk of heart failure 15 percent.

Overall in the study, 1 percent of women suffered heart failure during the seven-year study.

Among men, each one-unit increase in BMI was associated with a 4 percent higher heart failure rate, Levitan said.

Researchers looked at two Swedish studies totaling nearly 80,000 people for the result.

The findings are published online in the April 7 edition of the journal Circulation: Heart Failure.