Relationship between various anthropometric indicators used for obesity measurement among college going girls of Agra

Context: Obesity has escalated to an alarming proportion in the last twenty years. It is currently the most preventable nutritional disease of the 21st century.  
Aims: 1. To find out the prevalence of obesity according to different anthropometric indicators among college going girls of Agra. 2.  To study their correlation matrix.
Study design: Cross sectional study.
Setting: Degree colleges of Agra
Study period:  January to June 2009
Sample size: 400 college going girls of 18-24 years.
Study variable: Height, Weight, Waist circumference (WC), Hip circumference (HC)
Statistical Analysis: Percentage, chi square, correlation coefficient
Results:  The prevalence of overweight and obesity was found to be 18.5% & 4.5% respectively according to Body mass index (BMI), while using other criteria like WC, Waist to Height Ratio (WHtR) & Waist to Hip Ratio (WHR) it was 23.3, 19.3 & 11.5 percent respectively. All the obese by BMI classification were having above normal WC & WHtR. Among those 11.5 percent detected centrally obese by WHR, two third were also overweight/obese by BMI criteria. Among obese (4.5 %) detected by BMI classification, more than half (55.5%) were having their height less than reference Indian women height.  Of the 14.5% subjects with below normal height, 25.9%, 27.6% and 31% were having their WHtR, WHR and WC greater as compared to normal ones. WHtR was found to be strongly correlated with WC (0.90) & BMI (0.87).
Conclusion:  In addition to generalized obesity, central obesity in early ages may contribute to some chronic diseases in adulthood. An intervention programme, therefore, is urgently needed to reduce overweight and obesity in adolescent stages. Further studies need to be carried out to identify which anthropometric parameter has the highest predictive value in the identification of subjects at risk of obesity-related disorders.