Exploring the Role of Adult Wrist Circumference as a Potential Indicator of Obesity

To explore the correlation of wrist circumference (WrC) with various obesity indices and to determine gender-specific optimal cut-off points of WrC for obesity.

Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of the Study: Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan, from December 2021 to December 2022.

Two hundred and eighty residents of Karachi, aged 30-60 years, participated in this research. Established methods were used to measure body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, hip circumference, neck circumference, WrC, visceral fat level, waist-hip ratio, abdominal volume index, and body roundness index. Correlation of WrC with all obesity markers was done and scatterplots were obtained. Receiver Operating Characteristic curves were plotted to find the gender-specific cut-off value of WrC.

Of the total 280 subjects, 191 (68%) were females and 89 (32%) were males. The overall mean age was 42.04 ± 9.12 years (range: 28-65 years). The mean WrC in males and females were 16.32 ± 1.01 cm and 14.82 ± 1.03 cm, respectively. The WrC correlated best with neck circumference in males (r = 0.758; p<0.001) and BMI in females (r=0.615; p<0.001). The scatterplots obtained showed positive linear relationships between WrC and anthropometric variables. The cut-off values of WrC for adult males and females when compared to waist circumference were 15.45 cm and 13.95 cm, respectively.

Measurement of the WrC can be a helpful indicator to identify excess weight in the general population. Its ease of measurement makes it applicable in both routine clinical practice and extensive epidemiological research.

Wrist circumference, BMI, Waist circumference, Obesity.