Title : There is no association between measures of obesity and cardiometabolic risk indices in this Nigerian population
Abstract:
Background: Cardiovascular diseases are the world’s number one cause of death. Various scoring systems and indicators, biochemical and otherwise, have arisen to help estimate the cardiovascular risk of populations, thus helping with screening and implementing measures to attenuate this risk. Obesity, either general or central, has long been associated in various populations with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, in a country like Nigeria, 80% of the population lacks health insurance coverage, and it behoves us as healthcare professionals to find cheaper means of estimating an individual’s cardiovascular risk profile.
Our aim in conducting this study is to identify an association between various measures of obesity (body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-to-height ratio) and markers of cardiometabolic risk among patients attending a cardiology hospital in Lagos, Nigeria.
Methods: This is a retrospective study involving the analysis of the medical records of 206 newly presenting patients of both sexes at Meridian Cardiac Center over one year with complete anthropometric and laboratory data. The measures of obesity were each made independent variables. At the same time, Castelli Risk Indices (I and II), Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP) and the Triglyceride/HDL-cholesterol ratio were deemed dependent variables. The association between these variables was assessed using the Chi-square test. P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: The mean age of the study population was 53.33 ± 14.72 years, with 53.4% being males. As for the measures of obesity, 186 persons (90.3%) had an at-risk waist-to-height ratio, 174 (84.5%) had an at-risk waist circumference, and 106 (51.5%) had a BMI of at least 30%. As shown in Table 1, there was no statistically significant association between Castelli Risk Indices, TG/HDL, and AIP and the measures of obesity.
Conclusions: No association was discovered between the various measures of obesity and markers of cardiometabolic risk in this Nigerian population.
Audience Take Away:
- This research aimed to find less expensive means of estimating cardiometabolic risk in the Nigerian population
- Our findings contradict existing literature drawing associations between obesity and cardiometabolic risk
- Further research is required to find anthropometric measures that would reliably estimate the Nigerian population's cardiometabolic risk
