Nitin Nahar , Ankur Joshi , Saket Kale
Background: Several measures like Bio-electrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) and anthropometry are been proposed in literature to quantify obesity. As Obesity is an established harbinger of hypertension; the strength of association of these measures with hypertension may provide an evidence for their aptness in context specific setting.
Aims and Objective: To compare the performance of Bio-electrical Impedance Analysis with anthropometric indices (Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference) to predict hypertension among Indian population.
Method/study design: This hospital based cross sectional study was conducted for 6 months. BIA, anthropometry data and blood pressure were recorded from representative sample. Validity of these obesity measures for hypertension was analyzed through sensitivity, specificity and predictive values. Further the strength of association and overall accuracy of these measures were compared through area under Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves and nonparametric paired comparisons.
Result: Waist Circumference (WC) was overall more sensitive and specific tool than BIA and Body Mass Index (BMI), with higher predictive accuracy for hypertension. Area Under Curve (AUC) was maximum for WC in both male and female and this difference was detected statistically significant in contrast paired comparison.
Conclusion: BIA was not found to be superior over anthropometric measures in Central-Indian ethnicity to envisage Hypertension; However, more evidences need to be generated from a multicentric study with diverse strata representation before making final remark.
