A study on prevalence of obesity and life-style behaviour among medical students

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONThe incidence of obesity is increasing dramatically worldwide. Overall 23% world adult population is overweight and 9.8% obese. By 2030, the number of overweight and obese adults is projected to be 2.16 and 1.12 billion, (38% and 20%), respectively. 1 Overweight/obesity is the fifth leading risk factor for global death. At least 2-8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese.2 A variety of factors including faulty diet, genetic predisposition, physical inactivity and behavioural factors are implicated as contributing factors to obesity. 3Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation in the body that may impair health. Body mass index (BMI) is commonly used to classify overweight and obesity among adults.2 Raised BMI is an important risk factor for chronic diseases such as hypertension, type II diabetes mellitus, infertility, hyperlipidaemia and coronary disease. 444% of the diabetes burden, 23% of the ischemic heart disease burden and between 7% & 41% of certain cancer burdens are attributable to overweight and obesity. 2 ABSTRACT Background: The incidence of obesity is increasing dramatically worldwide. Overweight/obesity is the fifth leading risk factor for global death. At least 2-8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese. Studies on medical students and health personnel in many countries suggested that obesity is a problem among these population groups. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a medical college in Tumkur district of Karnataka. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data from 200 medical students after taking their written consent. Results: Prevalence of overweight/obesity among the students was found to be 16% as per BMI cut-off. 39% of the female and 80%of the male students had normal waist-hip ratio while 61% of the female students and 20% of the male students had a higher waist-hip ratio where the risk of developing the metabolic complications was substantially increased. However, apart from breakfast skipping, no other Life-style behaviour was found to have any significant effect on obesity in the study. Conclusions: Prevalence of overweight and obesity according to WHO classification was 14.5% and 1.5%. The study reinforces the need to encourage healthy lifestyle, healthy food habits and a physically active daily routine among medical students.

Obesogenic Environment in the medical field: First year findings from a five-year cohort study

“…This is consistent with study findings conducted on medical students in Malaysia, 15 India, 11 and in Pakistan. 20 On the contrary, the findings of our study contradicted the findings of two studies conducted by Anupama 21 and Fernandez, 22 which showed that the predominant proportion of their medical students who have higher BMI overtime is female. All the above mentioned studies were conducted through cross-sectional study design where there is generally no evidence of the temporal relationship between the variables and BMI, thus could not establish causality.…”

Prevalence of obesity and overweight and factors associated with it among medical students of Bundelkhand region: A cross-sectional study

“…From our study, it can be observed that there is a significant association between overweight and obesity and the habit of taking breakfast daily (P=0.001). Studies conducted by Deotale et al, 11 and Anupama et al, 12 concluded that there is a significant association between skipping breakfast and overweight and obesity, which was similar to our study. In contrast, a study conducted by Veena et al, 23 concluded that skipping breakfast was not associated with obesity.…”

“…The majority of the students, 250 (96.15%), were hostellers, whereas 10 (3.85%) were day scholars. Similar to our study, Anupama et al, 12 and Deotale et al, 11 observed that a sizable portion of the participants were residing in hostel facilities.…”

“…The findings of the study indicated that there was no significant association between overweight and obesity and watching TV or mobile while eating (P>0.05). The studies conducted by Anupama et al, 12 and Panda et al, 24 concluded that there is no significant association between overweight and obesity and watching TV while eating. In contrast, a study conducted by Deotale et al, 11 concluded that there was a significant association between overweight and obesity and the frequency of taking meals while watching TV or reading.…”

Factors Associated with Breakfast Skipping among Undergraduate Medical Students of a Selected Medical College in Bangladesh

“…3 Ma et al found that breakfast skipping adults and adolescents tend to eat more for the rest of the day 33 hence being obese. 34 As breakfast skipping increases appetite and diminish satiety, it is associated with more energy consumption during later meals with poor food quality. The hunger aroused by skipping breakfast could shift the food choices also at subsequent meals toward energy and fat-dense foods.…”