Assessment of the relationship between Central Adiposity measures, Percentage Body Fat and Body Mass Index among Women from Kaduna and Rivers States of Nigeria

This study determined which central adiposity measure can better predict percent body fat (PBF) and Body mass index and the incidence of obesity, overweight , normal weight and underweight in women from Rivers and Kaduna, Nigeria.A total of 788 (Rivers state, n=401 and Kaduna, n=387) apparently healthy females participated in this study. Weight and height were measured using weighing scale and stadiometer respectively. Subjects were classified as underweight, normal, overweight, obese using WHO standard. Participants were grouped into ages 18- 20, 21-23, 24-26, 27-30 years. Minimum waist circumference (WC) and maximum hip circumference (HC) were measured to the nearest 0.1cm using a non stretchable tape. Percentage body fat (PBF) was measured using bio impedance analyser (Tanita, Japan).This study showed the incidence of underweight, normal weight, overweight and obesity were (38) 9.8%, (249) 64.3%, (78) 20.2%, and (22) 5.7% respectively for women from Kaduna; (40) 10%, (253) 63.1%, (80) 20% and (28) 7.0% respectively for women from Rivers. Results also showed that age had a significant association with BMI (River: ÷2=38.585, p=0.000; Kaduna: ÷2=19.323, p=0.023). WC showed the strongest significant (p < 0.001) partial correlation with BMI and PBF (r= 0.83 and 0.83, respectively) among Kaduna women, while in Rivers women WC had a partial correlation with BMI and PBF (r = 0.69 and 0.74 respectively). The correlation coefficient of WC with BMI and PBF was higher than the correlation coefficient of other central adiposity measures with BMI and PBF.WC should be preferred over other measures of central adiposity in clinical assessment of obesity among Kaduna and Rivers women, since it had the highest correlation coefficient with %BF and BMI. Population validated equations were constructed using WC,WHR or HC to assess percentage body fat and BMI.

Key Words: Obesity, Underweight, Overweight, Normal Weight, Percentage Body Fat