Waist Circumference is a Better Predictor of Recurrent Pregnancy Loss When Compared to Body Mass Index among Nigerian Women

Abstract

Recurrent Pregnancy loss is a common obstetrics condition with severe physical and psychological consequences to the patients and attending physicians as well. It affects 1-5% of women and up to 50% has no identifiable etiology. Obesity is one of the independent risk factor of this condition; however, the evidence of this association is conflicting. This study aims to further determine that obese women with higher visceral fat are at increased risk of Recurrent Pregnancy Loss. The study was a cross-sectional case-control at a public referral hospital in Kano state Nigeria where 116 women with recurrent pregnancy loss were compared to a comparison control group consisting of 116 normal women. In addition to their socio-demographics, weight, height, BMI, waist circumference, and Hip circumference were collected. It was discovered that Obese BMI range and High-risk value for WC were significantly higher odds of recurrent pregnancy loss (OR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.37-2.46; OR, 4.61 95% CI, 3.458- 5.696 respectively) Logistic regression analysis showed that the most important factor predicting the occurrence of Recurrent pregnancy loss was waist circumference. The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve showed that WC has a considerably higher area under the curve (AUC) and BMI had the least AUC value. This study concludes that waist circumference may be superior to BMI as a risk factor of Recurrent Pregnancy Loss.

Keywords: Recurrent Pregancy Loss, BMI, Waist Circumference