Body Proportions and Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Rural Indian Adults

Body proportions may reflect early-life growth and developmental exposures associated with later cardiometabolic risk, but evidence from rural India is limited. We assessed cardiometabolic risk factors and their associations with sitting height, leg length, and sitting-height ratio among rural Indian adults.

This cross-sectional study analyzed baseline data from 2196 adults (1098 men and 1098 women) enrolled in YUVAAN multigenerational cohort in rural Pune, Maharashtra. Anthropometric, body-composition, clinical, biochemical, and dietary assessments were performed. Associations between body-proportion measures and cardiometabolic risk factors were examined. Sitting-height and leg-length models were adjusted for age, sex, and standing height; and sitting-height ratio for age and sex.

Low HDL cholesterol was the most prevalent lipid abnormality (75.5%); hyperglycemia, hypertriglyceridemia, and hypercholesterolemia affected 19.5%, 18.3%, and 11.1% of participants, respectively. Adiposity and central obesity were more prevalent among participants with sitting height above the sex-specific 75th percentile than counterparts (68.2% vs. 54.5% and 71.8% vs. 54.5%, respectively). In unadjusted analyses, each 1-cm increase in sitting height was associated with higher odds of dyslipidemia, hypertension, obesity, adiposity, and elevated waist circumference. Greater leg length was associated with lower odds of dyslipidemia, obesity, and adiposity, while high sitting-height ratio was associated with obesity and elevated waist circumference. After adjustment, greater sitting height and sitting-height ratio remained associated with an adverse cardiometabolic profile, whereas greater leg length was inversely associated with these outcomes but not hyperglycemia.

Greater sitting height and sitting-height ratio, and shorter leg length, were associated with an adverse cardiometabolic profile among rural Indian adults.