A Study of Relationship of Waist Circumference and Waist-to-Hip Ratio with Blood Pressure Levels in Young Obese Adults

Overweight and obesity are important determinants of health and lead to adverse metabolic changes including increase in blood pressure. Studies in urban Indian population showed strong relationship between different anthropometric parameters and blood pressure levels, but little is known about these relationships in North-eastern parts of India. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to study the relationship between different anthropometric indicators and BP levels in these North-Eastern parts of India. This cross sectional study was carried out in 250 subjects in the age group of 18 to 30 years residing in the premises of Assam Medical College & Hospital for duration of 1 year. The parameters, BMI, waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist-to-hip ratio (WtHR) and BP were standardized according to Indian Health Ministry’s guidelines for Prevention and Management of Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome and JNC-VII criteria. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS statistics version 17.0 with paired T test to analyze quantitative data and P<0.05 was used to indicate statistical significance. The results showed that the increment in BP is highly significantly related to age (P<0.01), weight (P<0.01), BMI (P<0.01), WC (P<0.01) and WtHR (P<0.01). So, it can be concluded that BP has got a direct relationship with age, weight, BMI, WC and WtHR.