Correlation of Body Surface Area and Body Mass Index with Blood Pressure in Young Adults in a South Indian Medical College

Abstract

Background: With hypertension becoming more and more common among young adults , it has become essential to screen for hypertension from a young age. But practical issues of training , BP equipment availability in rural areas in India, it is necessary that some surrogate anthropometric measurements which will help in early diagnosis of hypertension are used. In this study the Body Surface Area and Body Mass Index have been compared to be used as markers for diagnosis of Hypertension among medical students aged 19-22 years.

Materials and Methods:100 medical students (65 females, 35 males) were included in the study. Anthropometric measurements- Height, Weight, Waist  Circumference(WC), Hip Circumference(HC) were measured using standard technique. Blood Pressure was measured. The BSA, BMI were correlated with the Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) and Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP). The ROC curve was analysed for the anthropometric measurements and best cut off points were analysed.

Results & Conclusion:  A statistically significant difference was found between males and females with regards to mean±SD of SBP, WC and BSA. The prevalence of high Systolic Blood Pressure was found to be  7% and Diastolic hypertension was found to be 21 %. BSA was found to have a significant moderate correlation with SBP (r=0.520,p<0.05) compared to a weak significant correlation with BMI (r=0.369,p<0.05). No significant correlation was found between DBP and anthropometric measurements. The AUC was found to be larger and significant with regards to BSA (0.823) compared to BMI (0.801). The best cut off point was suggested as 1.26 m2 for BSA and 14.9 kg/m2 for BMI.

Hence BSA was found to be a better predictor for diagnosis of hypertension especially systolic hypertension among young adults and can be considered for use in large scale areas including rural areas for early diagnosis or prevention of same.