Profiles of body mass index and blood pressure among young adults categorised by waist-to-height ratio cut-offs in Shandong, China

Abstract

Background: Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) is proposed as a valid measure of abdominal obesity and health risks in practice. The present study examined the profiles of weight status and blood pressure (BP) among young adults categorised by WHtR cut-offs.

Methods: A total of 4226 college students (2107 males and 2119 females) aged 19–22 years participated in the study. The body mass index (BMI) cut-offs recommended by the Working Group on Obesity in China (WGOC) were used to define underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity. The BMI and BP profiles within each WHtR category were examined.

Results: For both males and females, ‘the high WHtR group’ (WHtR ≥ 0.5) had the highest, and ‘the low WHtR group’ (WHtR < 0.4) had the lowest BMI and BP levels. In the WHtR = 0.30–0.34 sub-group, 66.10% of males and 66.67% of females were underweight; in the WHtR ≥ 0.55 sub-group, 91.49% of males and 83.33% of females were obese; in the WHtR = 0.40–0.44 sub-group, 88.88% of males and 89.85% of females were normal weight. The prevalence of high BP in the WHtR < 0.5 group was 9.99% in males and 2.19% in females; the corresponding figures were 28.92% (males) and 14.06% (females) in the WHtR ≥ 0.5 group; the latter is significantly higher than the former (p < 0.01).

Conclusion: Individuals with low WHtR were underweight and those with high WHtR were obese with high BP. Results from this study support WHtR as a simple and effective screening tool for abdominal obesity and high BP in practice.

Keywords:

• Waist-to-height ratio
• body mass index
• blood pressure
• young adult

Acknowledgements

Surveys on students’ constitution and health are conducted under the auspices of the department of education in Shandong Province, China. We thank all the team members and all participants. Special thanks to Mr B. Yu for providing access to the survey data.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the medical and health programme of Shandong, China [2014WS0376].