Is there any difference between revised Indian and WHO BMI classification? A study on male desk job workers Prakash Akilesh Anand1,*, Nagraj B M S2 1Primary Care Sports Physician, Department of Sports Medicine 2Associate Director of Medical Services (CSR), Department of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Apollo Hospitals, Greams Lane, Off Greams Road, Chennai, India *Corresponding author: Dr. Akilesh Anand Prakash Department of Sports Medicine, Apollo Hospitals, 21 Greams Lane, Off Greams Road, Chennai-600 006, India. Email: akilesh.dr@gmail.com; Phone: (91) 44 2829 6572
Online published on 7 December, 2018. Abstract Background To determine the effect of revised Indian BMI guidelines on the prevalence of obesity in male desk job workers and to analyze cardiovascular risk factor distribution under the revised guidelines. Method A retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out utilizing health records of male desk job workers from a week-long onsite medical health screening camp held at two different corporate organization in Chennai, India in 2015. Statistical analysis was done assessing the distribution and association of smoking, hypertension and diabetes across BMI categories based on WHO and revised Indian BMI guidelines, using Pearson's Chi-square test of association at statistical significance of p<0.05. Results The prevalence of obesity increased from 10.7% based on WHO guideline to 52.7% by revised Indian guideline, translating into one in five male workers being added to the pool of cardiovascular risk. Though the behavioral risk factor of smoking became a significant association with revised Indian BMI guideline in comparison to WHO guideline, the significance of association of hypertension and diabetes with BMI categories was maintained irrespective of the guidelines. Conclusion Increase in the number of obese male desk job workers was noted with the revised Indian BMI guideline, with retention of cardiovascular risk factor association with obesity. Top Keywords BMI, Desk job, Indian, Obesity, WHO, Workplace. Top |