Comparison of various obesity indices against the occurrence of stage 1 hypertension in Indonesia

Background: Hypertension is one of the most important causes of premature death worldwide. Several studies had explored which obesity indices were more strongly associated with hypertension but the results were still varies. This study aimed to compare various obesity indices that has more strongly associated with stage 1 hypertension in Indonesia. Method: A total of 8240 respondents aged 40-69 years were investigated. Design of the study was a cross sectional using data from Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) round 5 in 2014. Cox regression was applied for the analysis. Results: Prevalence of stage 1 hypertension among the study participants was 25.98%. The obesity indice that showed the strongest association with stage 1 hypertension in both men and women was WHtR (PR 1.89, 95% CI 1.73-2.07). After stratified by sex, the obesity indices that showed the strongest association in men was WC (PR 1.73, 95% CI 1.53-1.97) while in women was WHtR (PR 1.76, 95% CI 1.5-2.05). Conclusion: WHtR performed better than BMI, WC, WHR for predicting the occurrence of stage 1 hypertension across sexes. WC was the best obesity indice in men while in women was WHtR. The appropriateness of selection obesity indices helps in maximizing screening for the occurrence of stage 1 hypertension.