Shamim A Qureshi, Muhammad Muzammil-ur Rehman, Muhammad Bilal Azmi, Shaima Hasnat.
Most Prevalent Diseases with Relation of Body Mass Index and Waist Circumference in Karachi, Pakistan.
J Dow Uni Health Sci Jan ;5(3):85-91.

Objectives: To relate the body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) with diseases commonly found in Karachi. Subjects and Methods: One hundred sixty one subjects of age group of 35 to 74 years were studied through cross-sectional questionnaire based survey from different areas of Karachi from February 2010 to January 2011. Height and WC were measured while BMI was calculated by standard formula. Data was analyzed by using GraphPad Software and mean ± SD were used to interpret the findings. Results: The findings describe the percentages of different diseases commonly found in study population like 32.91% have diabetes with BMI 26.69 ± 4.4 kg/m2 and WC 35.92 ± 4.3 inch, 30.43% have hypertension with BMI 26.79 ± 4.42 kg/m2 and WC 36.31 ± 4.72 inch, 14.28% have cardiovascular diseases BMI 25.38 ± 4.10 kg/m2 and WC 36.17 ± 3.91 inch, 10.55% have bone related problems with BMI 26.51 ± 4.52 kg/m2 and WC 38.11 ± 6.4 inch, 6.83% have asthma, 6.21% have migraine, 4.96% have arthritis and 1.86% was found anemic with collective BMI 25 - 29 kg/m2 and WC 34 - 39 inch. Whereas 30.43% of population have no disease (control) with BMI 24.03 ± 3.68 kg/m2 and WC 34.11 ± 3.86 inch. Conclusion: The results concluded that diabetes mellitus ranked first and the most commonly found disease followed by hypertension, cardiovascular and bone related problems, asthma, migraine, arthritis and anemia. Over all the highest rate of most of the commonly found diseases in Karachi was observed in participants of 45-54 years with BMI > 25 kg/m2 and WC >35 inch.

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