Background: According to the World Health Organisation [1] obesity is now a “global epidemic”, ranking as the fifth most common cause of death worldwide. Obesity prevalence has more than doubled over the past two decades [2], with particularly high levels in Scotland [3]. Obesity shows strong associations with cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is the largest single cause of death in the UK [4]; accounting for one in three deaths. Currently NICE [5] recommend using body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) for obesity assessment. Recently Krakauer and Krakauer [6] proposed the novel “a body shape index” (ABSI) for better predicting mortality hazard. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between BMI, WC, percentage body fat (%BF), ABSI and various cardiovascular risk factors in adult females.
Methods: The study was granted university ethical approval had an observational cross-sectional design and recruited through convenience sampling. International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry methodologies were used to measure height, weight and WC. Single frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis enabled estimation of %BF. BMI (kg/m2) was calculated by dividing weight (kg) by height squared (m2). ABSI (m11/6 kg-2/3) was calculated by dividing WC (m) by BMI2/3 (kg/m2) height½ (m) using an online calculator. Physical activity levels (PAL) and sitting time were estimated using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire, and self-reports of alcohol intake and alcoholic binges were also obtained. Vascular health was determined via: blood pressure (BP); carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) and the augmentation index (AIx) using a Vicorder™ device. SPSS v.19 was used to determine Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients for normally distributed data (WC, ABSI, sitting time, systolic BP, diastolic BP, mean BP) and Spearman’s correlation coefficients for all other data.
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