Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction

Contemporary literature highlights the importance of wrist circumference as an easy-to-use marker of general and abdominal obesity

Methods

We measured the wrist circumference and the waist circumference in a heavy volume outpatient department of a specialised endocrine centre in 467 subjects with and without diabetes over a period of one month. Patients with known medical conditions, that were confounding and influencing anthropometric parameters like body weight, including thyroid related disorders, genetic disorders were excluded. A dedicated nurse assistant was trained to eliminate the observer bias. The measurements were by standard protocols using calibrated instruments. Descriptive statistics and Pearson r was used for the statistical analysis.

Results

We evaluated 467 patients (with diabetes n = 252, without diabetes n = 215). The mean body weight (kg) in patients with diabetes 72.43 kg (±14.44, 95% CI 70.64 to 74.22) was more than those without diabetes 67.73 kg (±15.38, 95% CI 65.6 to 69.8), P = 0.0007. The mean age of the cohort was 46 years (±17, 95% CI 44 to 47). The mean age (years) of diabetics was more (51 ± 0.78, 95% CI 49.54 to 52.63) than the non-diabetics (39.8±1.43, 95% CI 37.01 to 42.63), P <0.0001. There was a significant positive correlation between the wrist circumference and the waist circumference, irrespective of diabetes (Pearson r 0.50, 95% CI 0.4388 to 0.5686 P <0.0001). The mean wrist circumference (cm) was significantly higher in the diabetics (16 ± 1.4, 95% CI 16.24 to 16.59) than the non-diabetics (15.94±1.33, 95% CI 15.77 to 16.12), P = 0.0003.

Conclusion

The results of our study suggest that wrist circumference is a useful index for assessing obesity irrespective of the diagnosis of diabetes. It is easy, quick, and convenient to measure than the waist circumference. This might make wrist circumference as a routine measurement in daily clinical practice. The results of our study need corroboration with larger epidemiological studies, involving varied population with multi-ethnic population.