1. Influence of Obesity Indices on the Variance of Blood Pressure among College Girls of 18-24 years of Agra.
- Author
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H. K., Thakkar, S. K., Misra, S. C., Gupta, and A. K., Bhagoliwal
- Subjects
WOMEN college students' health ,OBESITY in women ,BLOOD pressure ,PUBLIC health research - Abstract
Background: Obesity is not an immediate lethal disease itself, but it is a significant risk factor associated with serious non-communicable conditions like hypertension. Therefore, attention should be taken in to account as prevention is better than cure. Objective: To examine the Body Mass Index(BMI) and Waist to Hip circumference Ratio(WHR) measurements as indices of obesity and their influence over blood pressure(BP) of college going girls of Agra. Method: A cross sectional study was conducted among 400 college going girls aged 18-24 years from undergraduate and postgraduate sections. Height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, systolic and diastolic BP was recorded. The partial correlation coefficient was used to quantify the association between BMI and WHR with systolic and diastolic BP. Linear regression analysis was used to assess the influence of BMI & WHR on the variance of systolic and diastolic BP. Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 18.5% and 4.5% respectively. 45.5% of the subjects had normal weight and 31.5% were underweight. 11.5% of the participants had WHR ?0.85. Partial correlation controlled for age revealed a significant association between BMI and WHR. Stepwise linear regression analysis revealed that both BMI and WHR were independently correlated with both systolic and diastolic blood pressures. Conclusion: The present results suggest that, of the subjects studied; those with either higher BMI or central adiposity distribution are potential candidates for developing hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
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