Background: In this paper, an attempt has been made to explore the relationship between height and occurrence
of the non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.
Methods: For the purpose of analysis, Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), 2011 data was used.
Bivariate analysis along with a Chi-square test was performed to examine association between height and diseases.
To measure the impact of stature on diabetes and hypertension, three different logistic regression models (Model I:
considering only quartiles of height, Model II: covariates of model I along with demographic variables and Model III:
covariates of model II along with clinical variable) were considered.
Results: Occurrence of diabetes and hypertension was found to be inversely related with the height of participants. This
inverse association was statistically significant for all three models. After controlling the demographic and clinical variables
simultaneously, the odds ratio for highest quartile compared to the lowest quartile was 0.82 with 95% confidence interval
(0.69, 0.98) for diabetes; whereas it was 0.72 with 95% confidence interval (0.55, 0.95) for hypertension.
Conclusions: Findings of this paper indicate that persons with shorter stature are substantially more likely to develop
diabetes as well as hypertension. The occurrence of non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension can be
reduced by controlling genetic and non-genetic (early-life and childhood) factors that may influence the height.