Association of Conicity Index with Different Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors among Rural Elderly Women of West Bengal, India

INTRODUCTION: In menopause, changes in body fat distribution lead to increasing risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Therefore, the prediction of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by the presence of risk factors is of importance in elderly women. OBJECTIVE: To find out the conicity index (CI) and its association with different CVD risk factors among rural elderly women of West Bengal. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted among 236 rural elderly women, selected randomly from 30 villages of Amdanga block, West Bengal. Components of metabolic syndrome (MS), body fat percentage, different lipid profile fractions, CI, and body mass index (BMI) were measured. Statistical tests were calculated using SPSS software version 20.0. P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: High CI (median 1.25 and interquartile range 1.05–1.45) was found. The proportion of participants with high CI were significantly higher among those with MS (87.95%), waist circumference having 80 cm or more (99.09%), blood pressure having ≥ 130/85 mm of Hg (75.66%), body fat percentage ≥25% (80.14%), and BMI ≥23 (93.18%). CONCLUSION: High prevalence of CI existed among rural elderly women. Significant correlation existed between CI and different CVD risk factors as well as some of the components of MS indicating a possible coexistence of different CVD risks.