Investigating the Relationship between CBC Indices and Anthropometric Indices in the Tabari Cohort Population

Being Overweight is a global health problem and is related to important underlying diseases such as cardiovascular disease, malignancy, diabetes, fatty liver, etc. Over the past three decades, obesity has increased globally, especially in low-and middle-income countries. Numerous studies have shown that obesity increases the risk of developing chronic and threatening diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, blood pressure, and reduces life expectancy. On the other hand, chronic inflammation around fat cells plays an important role in obesity-related diseases. Also, changes in blood parameters are associated with increased body mass and chronic inflammation in obesity, and peripheral blood cells, such as the number of platelets, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes, are related to the progression of various types of diseases and inflammatory conditions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find the relationship between blood count biomarkers and anthropometric indicators in the adult group according to the Tabari cohort data.

Materials and methods:

 In the present study, cross-sectional data from a population-based cohort study called "Tabari Cohort Study" collected from 2014 to 2016 were used. This study is part of a nationwide study called "Epidemiological Prospective Study Group in Iran (Persian Cohort)". In the first phase of the Tabari cohort study, 10,255 participants aged between 35-70 years from urban and rural areas of Sari city were registered. Exclusion criteria in this study were inflammatory diseases, autoimmunity, malignancy, cardiovascular diseases, transplantation, and receiving any type of immunosuppressive drug, and finally 9939 people including 4043 men and 5896 women were included in the study. Age, height, weight, anthropometric measurements (BMI, waist circumference), CBC parameters including leukocytes, platelets, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes), and platelet distribution width (PDW) were recorded from the participants. By using the histogram drawing method to check whether the variables follow the normal distribution to decide between parametric or non-parametric analysis, T-test and ANOVA statistical tests, and SPSS 21 software, the results were extracted. The significance level in this study was considered to be 0.05 or less.

Waist-to-hip ratio was associated with higher WBC (P<0.001), platelet (P<0.001), and lymphocyte percentage (P<0.001). Higher waist-to-hip ratio was associated with higher WBC (P<0.001), platelet (P<0.001), lymphocyte percentage (P<0.001), and monocyte percentage (P<0.001). Higher BMI values were associated with higher WBC (P<0.001), platelet (P<0.001), lymphocyte (P<0.001) and monocyte (P<0.001) percentages. WBC, platelet, lymphocyte, and monocyte percentage were significantly higher in people who had a higher ratio of waist circumference to height (P<0.001).

The results showed that the relationship between anthropometric indicators and blood findings in favor of inflammatory conditions and obesity can affect indicators related to whole blood count.