The discriminatory ability of wrist and neck circumference in predicting insulin resistance in overweight and obese children.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to investigate the association of wrist circumference (WrC) and neck circumferences (NC) with Insulin Resistance (IR) in obese and overweight children and adolescents.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study included 227 overweight and obese children. Anthropometric indices such as NC and WrC were measured. Laboratory parameters such as fasting blood glucose (FBS) and insulin were measured after 12 h of overnight fasting. IR was determined by Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) using formula and HOMA-IR ≥ 2.6 defined as IR. The predictive power of NC and WrC for IR was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses and the area under ROC curve (AUC) > 0.65 were considered as highly accurate tests.

RESULTS

Among the 227 included samples, 52.4% were girls, and 67.4% were classified as obese. IR was detected in 48.5% of the participants without a significant association with gender (48.8% in girls and 48.1% in boys) and weight status (43.2% in overweight and 51% in obese). The AUCs of WrC and NC in detecting IR were 0.78 (95% CI: 0.72-0.84) and 0.72 (95% CI: 0.65-0.78) in overweight and obese children respectively. The Chi-square test shows that the AUC of WrC in predicting IR was statistically higher than NC (Chi-square: 4.47, P: 0.03).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings showed that WrC and NC are two useful indices for predicting IR in overweight and obese children and adolescents. Therefore they could be used as a clinical indicators of IR in children and adolescents.