Abstract
BackgroundThe current study aims to evaluate the association between neck circumference (NC) and several cardio-metabolic risk factors, to compare it with well-established anthropometric indices, and to determine the cut-off point value of NC for predicting children at increased risk of metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and low-grade systemic inflammation.MethodsA total of 669 school children, aged 8–14, were recruited. Demographic, clinical, anthropometric and biochemical data from all patients were collected. Correlations between cardio-metabolic risk factors and NC and other anthropometric variables were evaluated using the Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Multiple linear regression analysis was applied to further examine these associations. We then determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses the optimal cut-off for NC for identifying children with elevated cardio-metabolic risk.ResultsNC was positively associated with fasting plasma glucose and triglycerides (p = 0.001 for all), and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, C-reactive protein, insulin and HOMA-IR (p < 0.001 for all), and negatively with HDL-C (p = 0.001). Whereas, other anthropometric indices were associated with fewer risk factors.ConclusionsNC could be used as clinically relevant and easy to implement indicator of cardio-metabolic risk in children.
Highlights
The current study aims to evaluate the association between neck circumference (NC) and several cardio-metabolic risk factors, to compare it with well-established anthropometric indices, and to determine the cut-off point value of NC for predicting children at increased risk of metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and low-grade systemic inflammation
Mean systolic blood pressure, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), NC and %BFSkinfold were significantly higher, while height, %BF-bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), triglycerides, insulin and Homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were significantly lower in boys
We found that NC was associated with all the assessed cardio-metabolic risk factors similar to that observed for waist circumference, which was associated with all the cardio-metabolic risk factors except fasting plasma glucose
Summary
The current study aims to evaluate the association between neck circumference (NC) and several cardio-metabolic risk factors, to compare it with well-established anthropometric indices, and to determine the cut-off point value of NC for predicting children at increased risk of metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and low-grade systemic inflammation. Epidemiological and clinical investigations have revealed that the association between obesity and cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors begins early in life [2, 3]. Identifying and controlling childhood obesity is an obesity is at the core of the development of CVD, appropriate anthropometric measures and cut-off points to identify children with elevated cardio-metabolic risk factors are not well established. The most widely used method to categorize overweight and obese children and to predict cardiovascular and metabolic risk is the body mass index (BMI) [6]. BMI has been considered as an imperfect measure of adiposity, because it does not distinguish between muscle mass and fat mass, and requires calculations and the use of charts that may not always be available [7, 8]
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