Association of obesity anthropometric indices with hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hypertriglyceridemia in apparently healthy adult Nigerian population

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS

Research background

For decades, body mass index (BMI) has been the most widely accepted index of adiposity and most commonly used for defining obesity recommended by the WHO but it can be affected by age, gender, and ethnicity.

Research motivation

In most population-based cardiovascular risk assessment studies found in the literature, researchers selected two or more of traditional obesity among waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index. Anthropometric measures (BMI) to determine the level of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. This is because they are simple, non-invasive and cost-effective measurement procedures. However, as shown in the literature, these anthropometric measures of obesity have not been found to be systematically superior to others in terms of their discriminative power for CVD, as they may have some inherent clinical pitfalls associated with them in obtaining an accurate diagnosis.

Research objectives

We sought to identify the best anthropometric index predictive of each of the disease conditions; hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hypertriglyceridemia for our chosen cross-sectional population study group and to determine their respective cut-off values.

Research methods

This was a cross-sectional study that included 221 consenting apparently healthy adult Nigerians 18 years and above who were not pregnant at enrolment. After signing the consent form, the participants were given a questionnaire to fill indicating their sex, age, state of origin, smoking status (Yes or No), alcohol use (Yes or No), physical inactivity (Yes or No) and the family history of CVD (Yes or No). Height and weight were measured as well as the other anthropometric indices using a measuring tape and an abdominometer. The blood pressures were measured with an Omron M2 basic automatic digital blood pressure monitor while fasting blood glucose and triglycerides were determined with an SD lipidocare dual analyzer.

Research results

In this study, 221 consenting subjects (82 males and 139 females) of aged between 18-75 years with a mean age of 36.9 ± 11.4 years participated. From the questionnaires, the percentages of traditional risk factors such as status of smoking, alcohol use, physical inactivity and family history of CVD were found to be 2.3%, 17.2%, 31.7% and 24.4% respectively.

Research conclusions

Anthropometric measures used in this study were significantly associated with the CVD risk factors studied, with abdominal height (AH) emerging as the most predictive measure.

Research perspectives

Using this simple measure of AH, large-scale community population studies are recommended to predict and differentiate high-risk individuals for possible lifestyle modification procedures, clinical interventions, and treatments to minimize cardiometabolic mortality and mortality. Morbidity as a preventive measure. This is necessary given our relatively small sample size and convenient sampling method.