Prevalence of Abdominal Obesity and Its Associated Comorbid Condition in Adult Yemeni People of Sana’a City

Objective: Abdominal obesity is a metabolic problem that has become increasingly common worldwide over the past several decades. Its prevalence is increased in both advanced and developing countries including Yemen. The aim of this cross sectional study was to investigate the prevalence of Abdominal obesity in a sample of Yemeni adult individuals and its association with other comorbid conditions namely, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia (high triglyceride, low high density lipoprotein) and metabolic syndrome (MS). Design and method: A sample of 1118 adult Yemeni people equal to or over 18 years was randomly chosen to represent the population living in Sana’a City during a period of two years from April 2016 to April 2018. All the study group underwent full clinical history and examination which included measurement of BP and waist circumference and the following laboratory investigations (FBS, serum TG, HDL, and LDL). Results: The prevalence of abdominal obesity in this study was 24.5% (7.9% male and 44.2% female). Central obesity in this study was significantly correlated with age and sex. The highest prevalent comorbidity in patients with abdominal obesity was high BP (41.3%), followed by high serum TG (40%), higher prevalence of MS (40%), low serum HDL (37.8%) high LDL (20.1%) raised fasting blood glucose (22.1%) than those without abdominal obesity (5.5%, 31.3%, 16.6%, 8.5%, 12.5% and increased FBS 10% respectively). Conclusions: Hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and MS are strongly correlated with abdominal obesity.