Packed cell volume and its relation to obesity, gender and smoking status

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate the packed cell volume (PCV) correlation with body mass index, body fat percentage, also differences between genders and smokers & non-smokers, among Iraqi students.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was done on 112 healthy individuals (from which 52.7% were males), aged between 18-23 years old, in December 2022. A short informative history was taken through a questionnaire, anthropometric measures were taken to calculate body mass index and body fat percentage, and the determination of packed cell volume was done by the Microhematocrit method.
Results: Packed cell volume among males was higher 47.45±3.409% than for females 39.90±3.169%, with a difference statistically significant (p=0.000), also the correlation of PCV revealed direct significance with body mass index (p=0.011) and indirect statistically significant with body fat percentage (p=0.000). The prevalence rate of smoking was 13.4% and the level of PCV among smokers was 46.80±6.085%, significantly higher (p=0.015) than among non-smokers 43.43±4.702%.
Conclusion: Packed cell volume showed a direct correlation with body mass index, an inverse one with the body fat percentage, and was significantly higher among young smokers, emphasising the idea that this parameter can help to evaluate the health risk and to be included in preventive programs and assessment protocols.