ESPE Abstracts (2015) 84 P-3-850

ESPE2015 Poster Category 3 Fat (88 abstracts)

Waist Height Ratio as a Marker of Obesity and Insulin Resistance in Adolescents

V Sri Nagesh a , Rakesh Kumar Sahay b , Neelaveni Kudugunti b , Vishnuvardhan Rao c , Syed Mustafa Hashmi b , Aditya Vikram b , Sania Jiwani b & Sana Hyder b


aCare Hospital, Hyderabad, India; bOsmania Medical College, Hyderabad, India; cNational Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, India


Background: Recent studies have shown a rising trend in pediatric obesity. However, studies dealing with the ultimate metabolic consequences of pediatric obesity and the means of accurately predicting these consequences are limited.

Objective and hypotheses: To study the utility of WHtR as a marker of insulin resistance. To validate the presently used cutoffs (≧0.5) and validate its utility in populations studies.

Method: 96 children of both sexes in the 11–16 years age group were evaluated for lifestyle factors conducive to obesity, BMI, WC, WHtR, triceps skin fold thickness and fat percentage measured and fasting samples drawn for fasting insulin, glucose, lipids, adiponectin, hs-CRP; & HOMA-IR was also calculated.

Results: Waist height ratio showed significant association with lifestyle factors, other anthropometric markers and biochemical markers, (P<0.05), except for adiponectin. 40 children out of the total 96 had a BMI <85th centile, among whom, eight children had raised WHtR and greater incidence of frequent snack consumption, family history of obesity and increased fat percentage (P<0.05). When the entire study group was divided into tertiles, the tertile with WHtR – 0.49–0.53 had HOMA-IR and hs-CRP values similar to cut-offs determined in previous studies.

Conclusion: WHtR performed as well as BMI and WC in assessing obesity and insulin resistance in children. Children with normal BMI and high WHtR can still have increased central obesity & consequent metabolic risks. The presently used WHtR cutoff ≧0.5 for central obesity, correlates well with insulin resistance and future cardiovascular risk. WHtR has the potential to become ‘the anthropometric marker’ to define insulin resistance and cardio-vascular risk in future community studies.

Funding: This work was supported by a research grant from the Endocrine Society of India.

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