Determination of Boundary Values of Body Mass Index (BMI) for Cardiometabolic Risk Using Waist-To-Height Ratio (WHTR) for a Cross-Section of Adult Nigerian Population in Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

The measurements of body mass and height to determine the Body Mass Index (BMI) in order to classify individuals whether they are normal, pre-obese or obese may not be sufficient as a primary screening tool for Cardio-metabolic risk assessment. However, it has been established that the Waist-to-Height Ratio (WHtR) will be of greater advantage over BMI in such risk assessments. It is widely assumed that mostly the individuals who are pre-obese and obese will be at risk for Cardio-metabolic diseases based on the BMI classification. But this may not be true as some individuals who are placed on normal category in BMI are found to be at risk based on the WHtR values which are greater than 0.5.Hence there is need to determine the boundary value of BMI for Cardio-metabolic risk using WHtR. This study concludes that for a cross-section of 200 (both male and female) adult Nigerian population of ages 20-67 years in Jos, Nigeria, the boundary value for Cardio-metabolic risk to be 24.45 Kg/m². It was also found that the males are at a higher risk for Cardio-metabolic diseases than their female counterparts in this study population. And these boundary values fall within the normal category (18.50 – 24.99 Kg/m² ) of BMI, suggesting that individuals of normal body mass can also be at risk for Cardio-metabolic diseases, in addition to pre-obese and obese categories on BMI classification

Keywords: Body Mass Index, Waist-to-Height Ratio, Cardio-metabolic risk, boundary value.