Conicity Index as a Predictor of Blood Pressure Levels, Insulin and Triglyceride Concentrations of Healthy Premenopausal Women

Conicity index (C index), an index of abdominal obesity that was developed based on a model of geometric reasoning, proved to be a sensitive and better than the waist to hip ratio indicator of risk for hyperlipidemia in Western populations. To evaluate comparatively the C index and the Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR) as predictors of blood pressure levels, insulin and triglyceride concentrations, we performed a cross-sectional study on 280 healthy women, 18-24 year-old. C index was found to be within the expected range (0.95 to 1.73) and significantly correlated with WHR (r = 0.562, p = 0.0001) and body weight (r = 0.312, p = 0.0001). Additionally, C index correlated with fasting insulin levels (r = 0.13, p = 0.03), and systolic blood pressure (r = 0.14, p = 0.02). WHR correlated with fasting insulin levels (r = 0.12, p = 0.05), systolic blood pressure (r = 0.12, p = 0.13) and triglycerides (r = 0.22, p = 0.0006). C index and WHR are equally good, albeit weak, predictors of fasting insulin and blood pressure levels, while WHR proved to be a better than C index predictor of triglyceride concentrations in this population of healthy premenopausal Greek women. Further epidemiologic studies to comparatively evaluate the two indexes as predictors of risk for the development of metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease in various populations are needed.

Key words

Conicity Index - Waist to Hip Ratio - Obesity - Insulin - Blood Pressure - Lipids