Abstract
BackgroundThe independent association of neck circumference (NC) on elevated blood pressure is still uncertain in adults of China. The aim of this study is to explore such association and investigate the predictive value of NC on hypertension.MethodsA total of 4279 adults aged 20–80 years participated in the cross-sectional study in 2014. Anthropometric information, NC, body composition indexes such as waist circumference, hip circumference and body fat percentage, and blood pressure were measured. General linear regression model was used to explore the association between NC and blood pressure; Logistic regression models were fitted to calculate the multi-variable adjusted prevalence, and the association of NC with hypertension.ResultsThe overall prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension were 11.05 and 23.63%, respectively. NC was positively associated with both SBP and DBP (p < 0.001). The adjusted prevalence of hypertension increased with elevated NC quartiles in both sexes (p for trend < 0.001), from 17.81 to 42.93% in male and 9.72 to 21.31% in female. For male, NC was only associated with hypertension (OR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.05–1.25) but not with pre-hypertension (OR: 0.97, 95% CI: 0.88–1.06). However, in female, NC was associated with both pre-hypertension and hypertension, the BMI adjusted ORs were 1.15 (1.03–1.28) and 1.24 (1.14–1.34). The sex-specific AUCs for NC predicting hypertension were 0.633 in male and 0.663 in female, similar with AUCs of other body fat indexes.ConclusionsNC was associated with both pre-HTN and HTN independent from other body composition indexes. NC is a simple and useful anthropometric index to identify elevated blood pressure in Chinese adults.
Highlights
The independent association of neck circumference (NC) on elevated blood pressure is still uncertain in adults of China
The sampling procedure was described elsewhere [13], which briefly was: in the first stage, the provincial capital and one mid-size city, and two counties including one developed and one undeveloped according to the local GDP were selected; in the second stage, districts were selected from cities, and rural townships were selected from counties; in the stage, streets or communities were selected from districts in urban areas, and villages were selected from townships in rural areas; in the final stage, individuals resident in the selected areas were all invited to participate in the study
NC was observed significantly associated with increased Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and Diastolic blood pressure (DBP) after adjusted for body composition indexes including Waist circumference (WC), Waist-hip ratio (WHR) and body mass index (BMI) (Additional file 1: Table S1, p < 0.001)
Summary
The independent association of neck circumference (NC) on elevated blood pressure is still uncertain in adults of China. The aim of this study is to explore such association and investigate the predictive value of NC on hypertension. As an index of upper-body subcutaneous adipose tissue distribution [4], As one of the most important risk factors of cardiovascular disease, hypertension was the world’s leading risk for death [9, 10]. There are previous studies reported the association between neck circumference and elevated blood pressure in populations in China, but with inconsistent conclusions. The aim of the present study, is using data derived from the China National Health Survey (CNHS) [13, 14], to explore the relationship between neck circumference and blood pressure among adults aged 20–80 years in China
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