Comparing general obesity indicator and central obesity indicators for hypertension prediction

TL;DR

This study compares general and central obesity indicators to predict hypertension among Bhavnagar police personnel.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that BMI has marginal superiority over waist circumference in predicting hypertension.

Findings

Both BMI and waist circumference are associated with hypertension.

BMI shows marginal superiority over waist circumference in hypertension prediction.

Abstract

Hypertension has emerged as a global epidemic, particularly affecting developing countries like India. Central obesity, assessed
through waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), is closely linked to cardio-metabolic disorders such as hypertension,
cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and diabetes mellitus. Therefore, it is of interest to assess the predictive capability of
anthropometric indicators and identifying individuals at risk of high blood pressure. A cross-sectional study was conducted among
Bhavnagar police personnel, involving measurements of both central and general obesity through anthropometric assessments. Thus, we show
that BMI and waist circumference which indicating general and central obesity respectively, both are associated with hypertension with
marginal superiority of BMI.