Four-year trends in adiposity and its association with hypertension in serial groups of young adult university students in urban Cameroon: a time-series study

Abstract

BackgroundObesity is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and is growing rapidly globally including in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We aimed to assess the trend in adiposity markers in Cameroonian university students, and investigated their associations with hypertension.MethodsFrom 2009 to 2012, we annually measured weight, height, blood pressure, waist (WC) and hip circumferences, and calculated the body mass index (BMI) and other indices of adiposity in consecutive students aged 18 years or above, during their registration. Time-trends in prevalence of overweight and obesity were estimated, and their associations with prevalent hypertension investigated.ResultsAmong the 2726 participants, the overall prevalence of obesity, overweight and obesity combined, and hypertension was 3.5%, 21.0% and 6.3% respectively. From 2009 to 2012, the prevalence of overweight and obesity increased in men only, from 13.1% to 20.9% (p-trend = 0.002), whereas prevalent abdominal obesity increased in women only, from 6.5% to 11.7% (p-trend = 0.027). The BMI and the WC were independent predictors of hypertension; each kg/m2 higher BMI was associated with 11% higher odds of hypertension, and each centimeter higher WC was associated with 9% higher odds of hypertension.ConclusionOur results show that overweight and obesity are rapidly increasing in this population of young sub-Saharan African adults, and are contributing to an increasing burden of hypertension.

Prevalence of hypertension and its associated risk factors in young adults attending a tertiary care institute of Nagpur: a cross sectional study

“…35 A study conducted by Choukem et al found body mass index and central obesity to be independent predictors for hypertension. 28 This was in concordance with our study. Another study conducted by Uchiyama et al among university students also found a significant relationship between overweight or obese category and hypertension among both males and females (p<0.05).…”

“…The prevalence of hypertension in this age group found in our study was similar to study by Dores et al 14 prevalence when compared to our study. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28] Similar studies conducted by Al Majed et al and Kanade et al found higher prevalence in this age group. 29,30 The National Health and Nutrition Survey for the year 2012-2013 reports that the prevalence of hypertension in young adults of United States to be 7.3%, this prevalence is also lower than our study.…”

Physiological variations of blood pressure according to gender and age among healthy young black Africans aged between 18 and 30 years in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa

“…Concerning the correlation of SBP with BMI, in line with our results, among 2,726 cameroonian aged 18 years or above, Choukem and al (Choukem et al, 2017) showed that each 1 kg/m 2 increase in BMI was associated with an 11% increase in the prevalence of abnormal high blood pressure (p = .013). Note: Data expressed as means ± standard deviation Abbreviations: <, inferior; ≥, superior or equal; BMI, body mass index; DBP, diastolic blood pressure; HR, heart rate.…”

The Visceral Adipose Index in Relation to Incidence of Hypertension in Chinese Adults: China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS)

“…The associations of overweight/obesity and some other adiposity indicators with the risk of hypertension were previously reported in substantial cross-sectional and time-series studies [8][9][10][11], and thus losing weight, as one of the non-pharmacological strategies, is commonly recommended to lower BP [3]. Several simple and low-cost adiposity indicators were developed including general adiposity index (body mass index (BMI) and height-adjusted body weight) and central adiposity indicators such as waist circumference (WC), hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, waist-to-height ratio, body adiposity index (BAI), and visceral adiposity index (VAI) [7,11,12].…”

“…Several epidemiological studies explored the association between VAI scores and risk of hypertension or CVDs but with inconsistent conclusions on the predictive ability of the VAI [10,11,15,25,26,36]. Though the positive association between the VAI scores and the risk of hypertension were demonstrated in different populations, there are still considerable studies that reached differing conclusions.…”