L Score as a Novel Anthropometric Measure for Obesity Screening in Adult Individuals: An Exploratory Study

BACKGROUND: Obesity is one of today’s most neglected public health problems, affecting every region of the world. Early identification of increased weight gain among the population is paramount to prevent the attendant complications associated with obesity. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this study was to measure the distribution of L score in the representative population and the secondary objective was to identify an association between L score values and other measures of obesity such as body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, neck circumference (NC), and total body fat percentage. METHODS: This study was conducted in the departments of plastic surgery and endocrinology of a tertiary care institute. The L score (a measure of fullness of the lateral retromalleolar fossa in the lower limb) was assessed in all the participating individuals. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 19.0. p < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant in statistical analysis. RESULTS: Among the 50 participants taken in this study, 24 had L score 0, 15 had score 1, and 11 had score 2. The participants with L score 1 and 2 had higher obesity, higher NC, and more body fat percentage compared to those having score 0. All the participants with L score 2 were overweight and had central obesity. CONCLUSIONS: The L score measure has a potential for simple and rapid screening of at-risk population for overweight and obesity.