Abstract

Background and Objective: Obesity has emerged as a worldwide phenomenon affecting wealthy and middle income groups as well as residents of countries previously considered to be poor. Based on epidemiological data, the higher the BMI, the greater is the risk of developing chronic health problems like Hypertension, Diabetes mellitus, Coronary artery disease, certain cancers, arthritis, central obesity and Cerebrovascular disease. The major weakness of BMI is that it indicates excess body weight and not fat, and more importantly, does not count for the variation in the distribution of fat within the body. Central obesity in patients, predisposes them to major metabolic problems, cardiovascular events, dyslipidemia, and it cannot be measured by BMI alone. Hence, waist circumference (WC) becomes better indicator for central adiposity.

Aims & Objectives: To study whether body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference as combined indicators have a better correlation with cardiovascular risk factors in obese individuals than their individual correlation with the risk.

Methodology: The study was conducted on 150 patients attending Medicine OPD in a tertiary care hospital. Data in the form of history, clinical examination and blood investigations, mainly lipid profile was collected. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed statistically to study the correlation of combined use of BMI and WC to predict cardiovascular disease.

Results: This is a cohort study having statistically significant correlation of combination of BMI and Waist Circumference and their impact on development of risk factors (dyslipidemia and hypertension) for cardiovascular disease. The mean total cholesterol level (p-value<0.01), mean TG levels (p-value~0.01), mean HDL level (p-value~0.12), Dyslipidemia (p-value<0.05) and Hypertension (p-value<0.01) were statistically significant in the study population.

Conclusion: The study was based on, calculating BMI and WC together and correlating the risk factors for cardiovascular disease. It is found that cardiovascular disease risk is greater in individuals with higher BMI and waist circumference (WC). The combined use of BMI and WC appeared to be more predictive of cardiovascular disease. Patients with no previous co-morbidities but with increased BMI and WC, had hypertension and dyslipidemiaas compared to those with normal BMI and WC.