CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Vol 23, No 8, September 2012
AFRICA
445
A few studies reported that waist-to-height ratio and sagital
abdominal diameter had the highest association with serum
lipoprotein cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
19,20
However
we did not measure these two parameter but suggest that future
studies do so.
Our study had some limitations. The most important was the
small sample size, resulting in too few diabetic patients. This was
due to difficulties in getting women to participate in the study.
However, a sample size of 100 should be enough to assess the
correlation between variables within one group.
Another limitation was the nature of cross-sectional studies,
which are not able to determine temporality. Therefore we
could not identify whether the risk factors of cardiovascular
disease preceded increased adiposity, or increased adiposity
was the result of these risk factors (dyslipidaemia, diabetes
and hypertension). We suggest future studies with prospective
designs are necessary to identify this enigma.
Conclusion
We showed a significant association of WC with SBP and DBP,
which are important risk factors for cardiovascular disease. We
also indicated BMI could be an important determining factor of
SBP. Although we showed a significant association between CI
and SBP, it did not have enough power and more investigations
are necessary.
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