Background: Obesity, a public health problem in many countries, was related to cardiovascular risk. High sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) was a predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and elevated in inflammatory diseases.

Objective: To investigate the association between hs-CRP and obesity among Thais.

Materials and Methods: The present study was cross-sectional study. One hundred eleven adults were randomly recruited, and the anthropometric parameters were measured. Obesity indices, such as body mass index (BMI), body adiposity index (BAI), and waist to hip ratio (WHR) were calculated to estimate the obesity. Spearman’s correlation was used to evaluate the association between hs-CRP and obesity indices. The subjects were divided into three CVD risk groups according to hs-CRP levels. The hs-CRP less than 1 mg/L (n=31), the hs-CRP 1 to 3 mg/L (n=54), and the hs-CRP more than 3 mg/L (n=26) determined the low, intermediate, and high CVD risk groups, respectively. One-way ANOVA was used to determine the significant differences of obesity indices among the low, intermediate, and high CVD risk groups.

Results: The present study showed a positive correlation between hs-CRP and obesity indices such as waist circumference (p<0.001, r=0.416), weight (p=0.001, r=0.311), hip circumference (p<0.001, r=0.376), WHR (p=0.024, r=0.214), BMI (p<0.001, r=0.383), and BAI (p<0.001, r=0.334). The results demonstrated that values of all obesity indices were elevated in intermediate and high CVD risk groups. BMI, waist circumference, and WHR expressed significant differences among low, intermediate, and high-risk groups (p<0.05). In addition, hs-CRP was significantly elevated in obese people compared with non-obese people.

Conclusion: The hs-CRP positively correlated with obesity indices indicating the association between high level of hs-CRP and obesity.

Keywords: Cardiovascular disease, High sensitive C-reactive protein, Obesity, Obesity indices

DOI: doi.org/10.35755/jmedassocthai.2020.06.10313

Received 17 Jun 2019 | Revised 2 Sep 2019 | Accepted 9 Sep 2019