A Comparison of the wrist and neck circumference and cardiovascular risk factors between physically active and inactive people

There are various methods for assessing body composition, but recently measurement of wrist and neck circumference has also been used as new indicators for identifying overweight and hypoactive people. The aim of this study was to compare the wrist and neck circumference and cardiovascular risk factors of physically active and inactive people. The population of the present study were all 30-40 years old men and women of Birjand city. From the population, 130 persons who were interested in participating in the study (97 participants, 46 males and 51 females) were randomly selected for the purpose of the study. The level physical activity of the participants was assessed by the Baecke habitual physical activity questionnaire and then the cut-off point was determined using the ROC curve and the participants were divided into two groups, physically active and inactive people. Indicators such as Height, weight, wrist circumference, neck circumference, waist circumference, hip circumference, body mass index (BMI), waist to hip ratio (WHR), blood pressure, blood lipids and fasting blood glucose of participants were measured by valid methods. Finally, the results were obtained running independent t-test via software SPSS version 22 at the significant level of p<0.05.
Results The results showed that WHR (p=0.0001), hip circumference (p=0.0001) and BMI (p=0.002) of the physically active participants were lower than inactive participants. However, there were no significant differences (P>0.05) between the wrist and neck circumference, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglycerides, high density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein and blood pressure systolic and diastolic of the active and inactive participants. Being physically active is associated with body composition improvement. Although neck and wrist circumference did not differ between active and inactive people, based on the gender considerations, it is possible to claim that these two new markers could server as predictors of cardiovascular disease in women.