Association of anthropometric parameters with risk of cardiovascular disease in obese and non-obese Egyptian children

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between simple anthropometric parameters (body mass index, waist circumference, waist to stat- ure ratio and sum of skinfolds thickness) with cardiovascular risk factors (total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein choles- terol, triglycerides, atherogenic index, fasting blood glucose, serum insulin level, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure) in obese and non-obese Egyptian children. The results showed that all anthropometric indices were positively correlated with all examined cardiovascular risk factors and negatively correlated with HDL-C. Obese children were significantly more likely to have two or more risk factors than non-obese participants. In obese children, the most prevalent CVD risk factors were hypertriglyceridemia (90%), followed by high LDL-C (76.6%) and low HDL-C (56.6%). The results indicated that obese children are at great risk for developing CVD. BMI and WSR are the best indices predicting CVD risk factors.