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Body composition and anthropometric indicators as predictors of blood pressure: a cross-sectional study conducted in young Algerian adults
- Corinne Colette Dahel-Mekhancha, Marie-Françoise Rolland-Cachera, Jérémie Botton, Rabiaa Karoune, Ibrahim Sersar, Lynda Yagoubi-Benatallah, Ikram Bouldjedj, Abderraouf Benini, Léopold K. Fezeu, Lahcène Nezzal, Djamel-Eddine Mekhancha
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- Journal:
- British Journal of Nutrition / Volume 129 / Issue 11 / 14 June 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 September 2022, pp. 1993-2000
- Print publication:
- 14 June 2023
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- Article
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Various body indicators are used to predict health risks. However, controversies still exist regarding the best indicators to predict CVD. Using a large number of measurements, our aim was to assess their associations with blood pressure (BP) and to identify the most relevant parameters to be used in health surveillance studies. The population included 589 students (67·2 % women) aged 20–25 years from Constantine (Algeria). Sixteen parameters were considered, including crude body measurements, ratios and body fat indicators based on bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). We used multi-adjusted linear regression models to assess the associations between body measurements and BP. According to WHO definitions, underweight, overweight-without obesity, obesity and hypertension (HT) were identified in 6·1, 18·0, 2·4 and 5·1 % of the subjects, respectively. Prevalence of HT was higher in men than in women (11·9 % v. 1·8 %; P < 0·001). In the whole sample, almost all indicators were positively associated with systolic and diastolic BP. The suprailiac skinfold had the strongest associations with systolic (β = 3·498; P < 0·001) and diastolic (β = 2·436; P < 0·001) BP, and as a whole, arm circumferences and weight were also good candidates. The currently used BMI, waist-to-hip, waist-to-height ratio and BIA indictors also predicted BP, but they did not seem to be better determinants of BP than crude anthropometric measurements. This study showed that overweight and HT were already found in the present population of young Algerian adults. Most body indicators were highly associated with BP, but simple anthropometric measurements appeared to be particularly useful to predict BP.
1 - Measurement and definition
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- By Tim J. Cole, Department of Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Child Health, London, Marie Françoise Rolland-Cachera, ISTNA-CNAM, Paris
- Edited by Walter Burniat, University of Brussels, Tim J. Cole, Institute of Child Health, University College London, Inge Lissau, National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, Elizabeth M. E. Poskitt, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
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- Book:
- Child and Adolescent Obesity
- Published online:
- 02 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 August 2002, pp 3-27
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
A simple definition of obesity is an excess of body fat. However, as a definition it immediately raises questions – how is body fat measured and what cut-off is used to define ‘excess’? The two questions are addressed in this chapter.
If obesity is an excess of body fat, a more neutral term is needed for the amount of body fat in the body, and here it is called adiposity. Adiposity is the amount of body fat expressed either as the absolute fat mass (in units of kilograms) or, alternatively, as the percentage of total body mass. Fat mass is highly correlated with body mass, while per cent fat mass is relatively uncorrelated with body size.
It is not only the amount but also the distribution of body fat within the body that is important in adults. The distribution or patterning of body fat is associated with later disease risk, independent of the level of obesity (Vague, 1956). Adults with central, trunk or android fat patterning, who are at greater risk (Björntorp, 1985), deposit fat preferentially around the waist, while with gynoid patterning fat is found more towards the extremes of the body.
Some obese adults were fat as children, so child fatness may be a risk factor in its own right for later disease (Power et al., 1997). This is relevant for setting a fatness cut-off.
4 - Nutrition
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- By Marie Françoise Rolland-Cachera, ISTNA-CNAM, Paris., France Bellisle, Hotel Dieu-Unité Inserm 341, Paris
- Edited by Walter Burniat, University of Brussels, Tim J. Cole, Institute of Child Health, University College London, Inge Lissau, National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, Elizabeth M. E. Poskitt, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
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- Book:
- Child and Adolescent Obesity
- Published online:
- 02 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 29 August 2002, pp 69-92
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
Nutrition is a major determinant of body size (Forbes, 1962). In addition to the energy intake from food, other components, such as the balance of nutrients in the diet and the diurnal pattern of food consumption, have been related to body composition.
Some studies describe trends in nutritional intake and obesity over time. Others analyse associations between food intake and body weight status but the available information is not always easy to interpret. Most results derive from dietary surveys, which remain the main method for determining the intakes of large populations. The limitations of dietary surveys, particularly under-reporting by obese subjects, have been widely discussed. One reason, apart from the difficulties of data collection on diets, why the interpretation of nutritional data is often difficult in obesity, could be that the present nutritional intake of obese subjects is not the factor responsible for development of the obese constitution. Indeed, dietary restriction in obese adults is frequently reported (Ballard-Barbash et al., 1996). In children, however, dietary data should be more promising, because the current behaviour of obese children is closer than adult behaviour to the spontaneous obesity-promoting intake.
In the present chapter, we discuss the significance of data on food intake for obesity in children and try to identify the nutritional and/or behavioural factors, which promote obesity.