Correlations between Pulse Pressure and Anthropometric Indices of Obesity: Cross-sectional Study in a Congolese Southwest Port City

Background: Correlation between markers of obesity and the pulse pressure (PP) remains a subject of debate. Aim: To assess whether the association between PP and the parameters defining obesity is modified by gender, age, sedentary and hypertension status in an apparently healthy Congolese Black Population. Methods: 397 apparently healthy men and women randomly selected during the MACRIS Study. Multivariate linear regression models were used to assess the association between PP and the parameters defining obesity, waist circumference, waist-hip ratio and body mass index (BMI). These models were adjusted for age, sex, heart rate, diabetes mellitus, physical inactivity, smoking status and blood pressure. The interactions were tested to highlight the modifying effect of age, gender, sedentary and hypertension status. Results: Waist circumference was associated with PP only in hypertensive, sedentary and less than 55 years old participants respectively. Gender had no modifying effect in the relationship between the PP and obesity parameters. BMI and waist-hip ratio were not associated with PP. Conclusion: Our study shown that waist circumferences were the only markers of obesity significantly associated with the PP. However, the strength of these associations was significantly different according to age, sedentary and hypertension status