Relationship Between Neck Circumference, Waist Circumference, Body Mass Index, Arm Circumference and Waist Hip Ratio as Predictors of Cardiovascular Risk Factors

R. E. Ucheya*, S. E. Okonofua¹, L. C. Anyanwu² and J. C. Igweh³

¹Department of Anatomy, School of Basic Medical Sciences,University of Benin, Benin-city Nigeria. ²Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin, Benin-City Nigeria. ³Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo state Nigeria. ⁴Department of Physiology, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus. Enugu Nigeria.    

ABSTRACT: Neck circumference (NC), as an upper body obesity index, is a simple screening measure for identifying overweight and obese patients. Based on the clinical significance of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC) and waist hip ratio (WHR), this study examines a relationship between changes in BMI, WC, WHR and Neck circumference. In a random sample cohort study the study group was comprised of 218 subjects ( Male) with no known major medical conditions who were not receiving any medication therapy. With age (17-34), divided in two age groups (17-25 and 26-34) with mean values (77.06 ± 0.56 and 82.97 ± 1.5 respectively) showed a significant difference (P < 0.05). Main indicators studied included NC, WC, WHR and BMI. Pearson’s correlation coefficients indicated a significant association between changes in WC and changes in NC (r= 0.46 each, P < 0.0001) BMI and NC, (r = 0.51 each, P< 0.0001), Age and NC (r=.127 each, P<0.05) but was insignificant for WHR and NC, (r= 0.1, each, P<0.07). Changes in WC, BMI, and Age, correlated positively with changes in NC but negatively with changes in WHR and the NC was revealed to be double the WC. This might be used as a reliable, simple, quick and cheap method for predicting cardiovascular risk factors for coronary heart diseases and can possibly provide a very useful criterion for fashion designers for predicting waist circumference if a simple measurement of neck circumference is employed.

KEYWORDS: predictors. cardiovascular risk factors. Neck circumference. Waist circumference. Body mass index. Waist hip ratio. Age

[ HTML Full Text]