Correlation between haematological profile and body mass index in adults

Abstract

Obesity is defined as excessive accumulation of fat in various tissues in the body which causes ill health in the body. The basic cause of obesity is imbalance between calories intake and calories expenditure There is increased intake of calorie rich foods and reduced physical activity due to urbanization all over the world.Body mass index is simple formula to classify obesity in adults. It is defined as person’s weight in kilograms divided by height in meter squares (m).Obesity and elevated BMI are the major causes for development of chronic diseases like stroke, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and other cardiovascular disorders.BMI is the modifiable risk factors of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, stroke and cardiovascular diseases. This study was undertaken to assess the relationship between BMI and haematological profile among young Indian population. This study comprises 200 participants comprising 100 males and 100 females aged between 18 to 30 years. The design for this study was cross-sectional survey. Ethical approval was taken from ethical committee of BMCH, Chitradurga. Under aseptic precaution, 10 ml of venous blood sample collected from antecubital vein and then transfererd to EDTA tube. Then haematological parameters like PCV, Haemoglobin concetration, RBC, WBC count was estimated using sysmex haematology anlyser.Subjects were grouped into underweight, normal, overweight and obese subjects. Stastical significance was determined by ANOVA. Scheffe post-hoc test was used to determine significance while pearson correlation was used to determine relationship between the variables. Data was analysed using SPSS software and presented as mean± standard deviation. Values of P ≤ 0.05 were considered significant.In our study, PCV is statistically increased in overweight and obese individuals as compared to other BMI groups in both males and females. Total leucocyte count was significantly higher in overweight and obese subjects when compared to normal subjects. We found no change in Haemoglobin concentration and RBC count in all BMI groups.In our study we observed, leucocytosis and higher PCV in overweight and obese individual groups when compared to underweight and normal weight BMI groups. There is direct positive correlation between BMI and total leucocyte count. RBC count and haemoglobin concentration shows no statistical significance among all BMI groups.There is need for promotion of a healthy life style, regular exercise, healthy nutrition, stress free life in young population.