An evaluation of body mass index, waist-hip ratio and waist circumference as a predictor of hypertension across urban population of Bangladesh

by Open Science Repository Medicine
(September 2013)

Abstract

In Bangladesh, especially in the urban areas, the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases is increasing at an alarming rate and hypertension is one of the most important risk factor for cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. So a cheap, available, understandable, user friendly and acceptable predictor should be evaluated and this study has tried to know the extent and magnitude among the body mass index, waist-hip ratio and waist circumference with hypertension in the urban areas of Bangladesh. This cross sectional study was conducted on some adult people in Dhaka City who were not suffering any kind of chronic disease and also females were non pregnant. All the anthropometric measurements were measured by following WHO recommended standard operating procedures, data was collected through a structured questionnaire and for the analysis chi-square was used and odds ratio and relative risk were measured. Total 300 participants were enrolled in the study where number of male and female participants were equal with the mean age of 42.63 ± 11.45 years. All the anthropometric measurements were significantly correlated with hypertension (p-value < 0.001). But for the male participants waist hip ratio was found more significant than others, for the female participants waist circumference was found more significant and body mass index showed a moderate level of significance for both groups. In considering the accuracy level during anthropometric measurements, the possibility of community acceptance and the study result, body mass index should be regarded as an effective predictor of hypertension.

Keywords: body mass index, waist-hip ratio, waist circumference, hypertension.

Full text

An evaluation of body mass index, waist-hip ratio and waist circumference as a predictor of hypertension across urban population of Bangladesh