# Association between neutrophil/ high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio and BMI in three Argentinean Indigenous communities

## TL;DR

This study shows that a new blood marker, NHR, can help identify high BMI in Indigenous children from Argentina.

## Contribution

The study introduces NHR as a novel, low-cost marker for cardiometabolic risk in Indigenous children.

## Key findings

- NHR showed better performance in identifying high BMI compared to other markers.
- NHR remained significantly associated with BMI after adjusting for age, sex, and other factors.
- The study highlights NHR as a potential low-cost tool for assessing cardiometabolic risk.

## Abstract

New hematological parameters related to HDL-C can provide insights into inflammatory status and lipid metabolism.

To determine the association between several cardiometabolic indices such as the neutrophil to HDL-C ratio (NHR), neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte to HDL-C ratio (LHR), TG-HDL ratio, and TyG index with BMI in Argentinean Indigenous schoolchildren from three impoverished communities.

Age, sex, body mass index (BMI), triglycerides (TG), HDL-C, and CBC were evaluated in a cross-sectional study. Additionally, NHR, NLR, LHR, the TG/HDL ratio, and the TyG index were calculated. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to explore the associations between these indices and BMI. A ROC curve was used to determine the most effective index for identifying high BMI.

306 schoolchildren (54.2 % female) aged 9.6 ± 2.8 years were evaluated. The prevalence of overweight/obesity was 17.3 % (n = 52). There were significant univariate correlations between BMI and the following variables: age (r = 0.244), HDL-C (r = -0.16), NHR (r = 0.27), TG-HDL -C(r = 0.23), and NLR (r = 0.23). The ROC curve demonstrated that NHR had a better discriminative performance for identifying high BMI (0.70; 95 % CI: 0.64–0.75; p < 0.01), outperforming all other indices, including NLR and HDL-C alone. Multiple linear regression analysis confirmed that NHR was significantly associated with BMI adjusted for age, sex, blood pressure, and location. (coeff. 0.24)

This study found that NHR demonstrated better discriminative performance compared with other markers for identifying high body weight in Argentinean Indigenous children from impoverished communities.

•Novel hematological/HDL-C indices may serve as cardiometabolic markers.•NHR accurately identified children with high body weight.•NHR is a low-cost cardiometabolic risk marker in Indigenous children.

Novel hematological/HDL-C indices may serve as cardiometabolic markers.

NHR accurately identified children with high body weight.

NHR is a low-cost cardiometabolic risk marker in Indigenous children.