Correlation of neck circumference with other anthropometric measurements among participants in a market survey at Ebonyi, South East, Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: neck circumference is one of the anthropometric measurements that are not routinely considered in the evaluation of patients with obesity and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This study was aimed at correlating neck circumference with other anthropometric measurements. Methods: it was a cross-sectional, descriptive study that involved the assessment of obesity among 197 participants (104 males and 93 males) using Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, hip circumference, and neck circumference. Results: the male-to-female ratio was 1: 1: 1. The mean age of participants was 41.8±16.3 years. The prevalence of obesity among the participants was 17.8% which comprised (Class 1 obesity at 11.2%, class 2 obesity 5.1%, and morbid obesity at 1.5%). Using the waist-hip ratio (WHR), the prevalence of central obesity was 26.9% among the participants. The mean BMI, Waist circumference, WHR, and Neck circumference were 25.5±5.2, 88.1±14.1, 0.88±0.1, and 36.4±4.7 respectively. The mean neck circumference for males and females was 38.0cm and 34.5cm respectively. The mean neck circumference for males was significantly different from that of females (p< 0.001). The correlation of neck circumference with other measures of obesity was highly significant (p< 0.001) for BMI (r =0.29), waist circumference (r=0.80), hip circumference (r=0.85), and WHR (r= 0.34). The systolic and diastolic blood pressures correlated positively with neck circumference and all other measures of obesity with highly significant p-values. Conclusion: it is necessary to consider the use of neck circumference as a measure of obesity since it correlated significantly with other anthropometric measurements from the study. However, this is a one-centre study which limits the generalization of the findings.