Published Paper Details:

BACKGROUND: Neck circumference (NC) measurement is one of the simple screening measurements which can be used as an index of obesity. NC is a marker of upper body subcutaneous adipose tissue distribution. AIM: To correlate the neck circumference with body mass index and waist circumference and to determine the optimal cutoff value for neck circumference that define overweight/obesity. METHODS: Ethical approval has been obtained from Institutional Ethical Committee. The study comprised 100 medical students, aged 18-20 years. Anthropometric markers of obesity were measured, including body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist-to-hip ratio (W-H ratio) and compared with neck circumference (NC) of the same subject. Pearson�s correlation coefficients were used to evaluate the associations of NC with BMI and WC. The optimal cutoff value for NC to identify overweight/obesity was determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: The mean BMI (kg/m2) and WC (cm) were 22.38� 3.94 & 74.88�6.28 in boys and 21.17 �3.39 & 77.13 � 7.73 in girls, respectively. Mean NC (cm) in boys and girls were 31.37�1.88 and 31.61 � 1.88, respectively. There was no significant difference between genders for BMI, WC and NC. NC had a positive correlation with WC (r=0.67; p=0.000) and BMI (r=0.4, p=0.03) in boys as well as in girls (WC: r= 0.60, p=0.000, BMI: r=0.73, p=0.000). At BMI of 25 kg/m2 (overweight) and 30 kg/m2(obesity), boys had NC of 34cm & 35cm and WC of 81cm & 86cm compared to girls who had NC of 33cm & 34cm and WC of 84 & 94cm, respectively.