Association of neck circumference and waist-hip ratio with total leukocyte count in healthy Indian adolescents.

Objectives: One of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease is obesity, particularly abdominal and visceral obesity. Another concern for it is inflammation. Both risk factors are interrelated as obesity is a state of subacute low-grade systemic inflammation. As neck circumference and waist-hip ratio are potential indicators of obesity, we wanted to compare the level of total leukocyte count in subjects with normal and high neck circumference and waist-hip ratio. We also wanted to observe whether there is any correlation between neck circumference and waist-hip ratio with total leukocyte count.

Methods: We selected 62 subjects (30 males, and 32 females) for the study. Both males and females were categorized into groups of normal and high neck circumference and waist-hip ratios. The total leukocyte count was compared among the groups and we correlated neck circumference and waist-hip ratios with total leukocyte count. Statistical analysis was done with SPSS version 23.0.

Results: We observed a statistically significant higher value of total leukocyte count in males with a high waist-hip ratio. But there was not a significant increase in TLC in males with high neck circumference. In females, the values were insignificant. On Pearson correlation, there was a negative correlation between neck circumference, waist-hip ratio, and total leukocyte count in both genders which is not significant.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that waist-hip ratio rather than neck circumference might be a proxy measure of a marker of inflammation in males.