A correlation study between body mass index and features of tongue manifestation / 国际中医中药杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the correlation between body mass index (BMI) and features of tongue manifestation.Methods A total of 1 655 physical examination individuals were selected,and height and body weight were measured to calculate BMI.Traditional Chinese Medicine tongue inspection was performed,and map of tongue manifestation was photographed by a digital camera.Results Among the 1 655 physical examination individuals,prevalences of normal weight,overweight/obesity and low weight were 50.94％,43.74％ and 5.32％,respectively.The prevalences of individuals had dark red tongue (37.98％ vs.24.56％;x2=40.883,P＜0.001),purplish tongue (5.94％ vs.3.44％;x2=8.133,P=0.017),dark purplish tongue (2.35％ vs.0.59％;x2=10.398,P=0.006),yellow fur (63.95％ vs.58.84％;x2=9.570,P=0.008),thick greasy fur (24.86％ vs.17.20％;x2=18.698,P＜0.001) in the overweight/obesity group were significantly higher than those in the normal weight group,and the prevalence of individuals had exfoliative fur/little fur/less fur in the overweight/obesity group was significantly higher than that in the normal weight group (1.93％ vs.3.91％;x2=6.454,P=0.040).The prevalences of individuals had red or deep red tongue (48.86％ vs.24.72％;x2=24.608,P＜0.001),red dot tongue (7.95％ vs.1.93％;x2=12.254,P=0.002),thin whitish fur (22.73％ vs.9.53％;x2=14.030,P=0.001) in the low weight group were significantly higher than those in the normal weight group.Binary logistic regression analysis showed positive correlation between dark red tongue (OR 1.830,95％ CI 1.515-2.211;P＜0.001),purplish tongue (OR 1.874,95％ CI 1.211-2.901;P=0.005),dark purplish tongue (OR 4.259,95％ CI 1.610-11.266;P=0.003),yellow fur (OR 1.294,95％ CI 1.093-1.531;P=0.003),gray-black fur (OR 6.147,95％ CI 1.816-20.811;P=0.004),thick greasy fur (OR 1.597,95％ CI 1.289-1.978;P＜0.001) and BMI,and negative correlation between pink tongue (OR 0.766,95％ CI 0.637-0.920;P=0.004),red or deep red tongue (OR 0.659,95％ CI 0.549-0.789;P＜0.001),red dot tongue (OR 0.548,95％ CI 0.326-0.921;P=0.023),thin whitish fur (OR 0.695,95％ CI 0.536-0.900;P=0.006),whitish fur (OR 0.821,95％ CI 0.683-0.986;P=0.035) and BMI.Conclusions There is some correlation between BMI and features of tongue manifestation.Abnormal tongue color is mainly dark red tongue in the overweight/obesity individuals,and red or deep red tongue in low weight individuals.Abnormal tongue fur is mainly thick yellow fur.The tongue shape is normal in different body weight groups.