Assessment of general, central and abdominal obesity and its association with the fast food and soft drink consumption among students

Abstract

Background: There has been an increase in the consumption of fast food as well as overweight/obesity in recent decades. Methods: The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of fast food consumption (FFC), soft drink consumption (SDC) and to evaluate its association with abdominal and general obesity. We conducted an analysis of cross-sectional study by selecting 724 students randomly from 2 largest universities in Zahedan, southeast of Iran, who were studying medical and basic sciences in 2018. Data collection through filling out an modified version of NELSON’s fast food questionnaire and measurement of anthropometric indices, such as waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), waist circumference (WC) and Body Mass Index (BMI) was conducted. Statistical analysis were conducted using chi-square, kruskal wallis tests and multivariate logistic regressions. Results: According to our results, 85.5% (83.6% of girls and 87.8% of boys) had at least one type of fast food consumed in the recent month including sandwich 46.0%, pizza 17.0%, and fried potatoe 9%. FFC was related to WHtR (OR: 3.4, 95 CI: 1.5, 8.0) as abdominal obesity and was associated to WC (p< 0.05 ) as central obesity, but was not related and associated to BMI (OR: 1.8, 95% CI: 0.9, 3.0) as general obesity. Moreover, a significant relationship was observed between obesity and SDC (OR: 1.5, 95% CI: 1.1, 2.3). Conclusion: consumption of fast foods was associated to central obesity based on WC and abdominal obesity based on WHtR, but did not associated to general obesity based on BMI. Also, consumption of soft drinks was associated to central obesity.