Neck Circumference as an Indicator of Overweight and Obesity in Young Adults

Noora Shrestha^1,

¹Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Padma Kanya Multiple Campus, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

Cite this paper

Noora Shrestha. Neck Circumference as an Indicator of Overweight and Obesity in Young Adults. American Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. 2018; 6(5):176-180. doi: 10.12691/AJAMS-6-5-1

Abstract

Neck circumference (NC) measurement is one of the simple screening measurements, that can be used as a marker of upper body fat distribution to notice overweight. The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between NC and overweight/obesity. In this cross-sectional study a total 198 college students (120 Female, 78 Male) aged 18-23 years were participated using convenience method. Anthropometric measurements of students were measured according to the guidelines of world health organization. Students with NC ≥37 cm for male and ≥34 cm for female and BMI ≥ 25 kg/m² are identified as overweight. The percentages of the male and female students with BMI ≥ 25 kg/m² were 9% and 15.8% respectively and with high NC were 47.4% and 23.3 % respectively. In both male and female students, there were significant and positive correlation of neck circumference with body weight (male, r=0.572; female, r=0.629; p=0.001), waist circumference (male, r= 0.407; female, r= 0.623; p=0.001), hip circumference (male, r=0.546; female, r=0.579; p=0.001), BMI (male, r= 0.532; female, r= 0.588; p=0.001), waist to hip ratio (female, r = .376; p= .001), and waist to height ratio (male, r= 0.33; female, r= 0.574; p=0.001). A significant and independent association was found between NC and overweight levels using multiple regression analysis in young adults. This study indicates neck circumference is a simple screening measure that can be used to identify overweight/obesity.

Keywords

neck circumference, body mass index, overweight, anthropometry

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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