BMI and WHtR in assessing the nutritional status of adolescent girls
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20181477Keywords:
Body mass index, Nutritional status, Waist to height ratioAbstract
Background: In spite of the fact, that, Body mass index being a most commonly used epidemiological tool for the assessment of nutritional status, it does not measure the visceral adiposity, which is the indicator for future cardio-metabolic risk. Hence the study was planned to determine whether Waist height ratio, which is an effective tool in measuring the visceral adiposity, has any relationship with the BMI, in assessing the nutritional status.
Methods: The cross sectional study was carried out among 980 school going adolescent girls, studying in class VI-XII standard, in the schools present in urban field practice area of Tagore Medical College and Hospital. Anthropometric assessment was done. BMI and WHtR was calculated, to assess the nutritional status. Relationship between BMI and WHtR was found.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 14±2.9 years. Number of participants, who were normal, underweight, overweight, obese based on BMI values were 227, 5, 301, 447 respectively According to the WHtR, 560 (57%) of them were obese, while 420 (43%) were non-obese. Moderate correlation exists between BMI and WHtR, with r = 0.68.
Conclusions: Waist height ratio having a positive correlation with the BMI in the assessment of nutritional status, preference of WHtR over BMI should be encouraged, as it also helps in measuring the visceral adiposity, which, is a potent risk factor for various metabolic and cardiovascular diseases.
Metrics
References
World Health Organization Physical Status. The use and interpretation of anthropornetry. Technical Report Series 854 Geneva. World Health Organization. 1995:263-308.
Rao S. Nutritional Status of Indian population. J Biosci. 2001;26:481-9.
Helene D, Mauli VC, DeBenoist B. Should Adolescents be specifically targeted for nutrition in developing countries? To address which problems and how? Available at http://www.who.int/child-adolescent.
Dasgupta A, Butt A, Saha TK, Basu G, Chattopadhyay A, Mukherjee A. Assessment of malnutrition among adolescents: Can BMI be replaced by MUAC. Indian J Community Med 2010;35:276-9.
Singh D. Body shape and women’s attractiveness: the critical role of waist-to-hip ratio. Human Nature. 1993;4(3):297-321.
Chinedu SN, Ogunlana OO, Azuh DE, et al. Correlation between body mass index and waist circumference in Nigerian Adults: implication as indicators of health status. J Public Health Res. 2013;2(2):e16.
Yoo EG. Waist-to-height ratio as a screening tool for obesity and cardiometabolic risk. Korean J Pediatr. 2016;59(11):425-31.
The world helalth report. 2000 Available at http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/whr00_en.pdf
Haslam DW, James WP. “Obesity”. Lancet. 2005;366(9492):1197-209.
Mahajan PB, Purty AJ, Singh Z, et al. Study of childhood obesity among school children aged 6 to 12 years in Union Territory of Puducherry. Indian J Comm Med. 2011;36(1):45-50.
Vohra R, Bhardwaj P, Srivastava JP, Srivastava S, Vohra A. Overweight and obesity among school-going children of Lucknow city. J Fam Comm Med. 2011;18(2):59-62.
Jensen NS, Camargo TF, Bergamaschi DP. Comparison of methods to measure body fat in 7-to-10-year-old children: a systematic review. Public Health. 2016;133:3-13.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
