Email this article Estimation of body mass index and risk evaluation of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in undergraduate students
Abstract
Background: The body mass index (BMI) is used in a wide variety of contexts as a simple method to assess how much an individual's body weight departs from what is normal or desirable for a person of his or her height. An increase in body fat is generally associated with increased risk of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and dyslipidaemia.
Methods: The study conducted on the undergraduate medical students was a cross-sectional analytical study. The BMI was calculated using the formula, BMI = Body Mass (kg)/Height (m2). The blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), blood sugar levels (fasting blood sugar) and fasting lipid levels were measured for the overweight and obese groups.
Results: A total of 305 students participated in the study. The mean BMI was 21.47 with a standard deviation of 3.42. 218 (71.47%), were in the healthy, 26 (8.52%) were in the overweight and 6 (1.96%) were in the obese categories. 16 (61.5%) of the overweight subjects were prehypertensives. 4 (66.7%) of the obese subjects were hypertensives. 2 (7.69%) out of the 26 overweight subjects were in prediabetic stage. 22 (84.61%) of the overweight and 5 (83.33%) of the obese subjects had dyslipidaemias.
Conclusions: The prevalence of being overweight and obese among undergraduate medical students is a matter of serious concern. This reflects on the students’ poor dietary habits and inadequate physical activity. A serious approach to reduce body weight through dietary modifications and regular physical activity is the need of the hour.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Eknoyan G. "Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874)—the average man and indices of obesity". Nephrol Dial Transplant. 2008;23(1):47–51.
Physical status: the use and interpretation of anthropometry. Report of a WHO Expert Committee. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1995. [3 September 2013]. (WHO Technical Report Series 854). Available at http://www.who.int/childgrowth/publications/physical_status/en/. Accessed 1 August 2015.
World Health Organization (2009) Global Database on Body Mass Index: BMI Classification. Available at http://apps.who.int/bmi/index.jsp?introPage=intro_3.html. Accessed 1 August 2015.
Kraemer H, Berkowitz RI, Hammer LD. Methodological difficulties in studies of obesity, I: measurement issues. Ann Behav Med. 1990;12:112-8.
Must A, Dallal GE, Dietz WH. Reference date for obesity: 85th and 95th percentiles of body mass index (wt. /h2) and triceps skinfold thickness. Am J Clin Nutr. 1991;53:839-46.
“Executive Summary". Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2008/. Accessed 1 August 2015.
Carl J Lavie, Richard V Milani, Hector O Ventura. Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease. Risk Factor, Paradox, and Impact of Weight Loss. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2009;53(21):1925-32.
Bays HE, Chapman RH, Grandy S, The Shield Investigators’ group: The relationship of Body Mass to Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension and Dyslipidaemia: Comparison of data from two national surveys. Int J Clin Pract. 2007;61(5):737–47.
Kitagawa T, Owada M, Urakami T, Yamanchi K: Increased incidence of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus among Japanese school children correlates with an increased intake of animal protein and fat. Clin Pediatr. 1998;37:111–6.
Dabelea D, Hanson RL, Bennett PH, Roumain J, Knowler WC, Pettitt DJ: Increasing prevalence of type II diabetes in American Indian children. Diabetologia. 1998;41:904–10.
Braun B, Zimmerman M, Kretchmer N, Spargo R, Smith R, Gracey M: Risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease in young Australian Aborigines. Diabetes Care 1996;19:472–9.
Drake AJ, Smith A, Betts PR, Crowne EC, Shield JP: Type 2 diabetes in obese white children. Arch Dis Child. 2002;86:207–8.
Ramachandran A, Snehalatha C, Satyavani K, Sivasankari S, Vijay V: Type 2 diabetes in Asian-Indian urban children. Diabetes Care. 2003;26:1022–5.
Pihoker C, Scott CR, Lensing SY, Cradock MM, Smith J: Non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus in African-American youths of Arkansas. Clin Pediatr (Phila). 1998;37:97–102.
American Diabetes Association: Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents. Diabetes Care. 2000;23:381–9.
Alfredo Halpern, Marcio C Mancini, Maria Eliane C Magalhães, Mauro Fisberg, Rosana Radominski, Marcelo C Bertolami, et al.Metabolic syndrome, Dyslipidemia, Hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in youth: from diagnosis to treatment. Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2010;2:55.
Elaine M Urbina, Philip R Khoury, Connie McCoy, Stephen R Daniels, Thomas R Kimball, Lawrence M Dolan. Cardiac and Vascular Consequences of Pre-hypertension in Youth. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2001;13(5):332-42.
Flegal JN, Carroll MD, Ogden CL, Johnson CL. Prevalence and trends in obesity among US adults, 1999–2000. JAMA. 2002;288:1723-7.
Lavie CJ, Milani RV. Obesity and cardiovascular disease: the Hippocrates paradox? J Am Coll Cardiol. 2003;42:677-9.
Manson JE, Bassuk SS. Obesity in the United States: a fresh look at its high toll. JAMA. 2003;289:229- 30.
Poirier P, Giles TD, Bray GA. Obesity and cardiovascular disease: pathophysiology, evaluation, and effect of weight loss: an update of the 1997 American Heart Association scientific statement on obesity and heart disease from the obesity committee of the council on nutrition, physical activity, and metabolism. Circulation. 2006;113:898-918.
Klein S, Burke LE, Bray GA. Clinical implications of obesity with specific focus on cardiovascular disease: a statement for professionals from the American Heart Association Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism: endorsed by the American College of Cardiology Foundation. Circulation. 2004;110:2952-67.
Litwin SE. Which measures of obesity best predict cardiovascular risk? J Am Coll Cardiol. 2008;52:616-9.
Ford ES, Capewell S. Coronary heart disease mortality among young adults in the U.S. from 1980 through 2002: concealed levelling of mortality rates. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007;50:2128-32.
Garrow JS. Obesity and related diseases. London. Churchill Livingstone 1988:1-16. Available at http://whqlibdoc.who.int/trs/WHO_TRS_894 (part1) pdf. Accessed on 2 August 2015.
Kumar CA, Revannasiddaiah N, Gopi A, Nanjundappa VH. A cross-sectional study on the dietary factors and their association with body mass index among undergraduate medical students in a medical college. Int J Res Health Sci [Internet] 2014 Apr 30; 2(2):591-8. Available at http://www.ijrhs.com/issues.php?val=Volume2&iss=Issue2. Accessed on 2 Aug 2015.
Fernandez K, Singru SA, Kshirsagar M, Pathan Y. Study regarding overweight/obesity among medical students of a teaching hospital in Pune, India. Med DY Patil Univ [serial online] 2014 [cited 2015 Aug 2];7:279-283. Available at http://www.mjdrdypu.org/article.asp?issn=0975-2870;year=2014;volume=7;issue=3;spage=279;epage=283;aulast=Fernandez. Accessed on 2 Aug 2015.
Joseph A, Mohan AS, Arathy R, Barma AD, Varghese S. Prevalence of obesity among students in Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram. Available at http://www.commedtvm.org/ug_research/ug_research_undated/ug_research_04.html. Accessed on 2 August 2015.
Gupta S, Guha RT, Saha I. Overweight, Obesity and Influence of Stress on Body Weight among Undergraduate Medical Students. IJCM. 2009;34(3):255-7.
Renu Lohitashwa and Parwati Patil. A cross sectional study of relationship of obesity indices with blood pressure and blood glucose level in young adult medical students. International Journal of Basic Medical Sciences. 2012;3(4):102-7.
Mani G. Assessment of body mass index and its associated nutritional factors among undergraduate medical students in Tamil Nadu, India: A cross sectional study. J Pioneer Med Sci. 2014;4(3):137-42.
Das P, Basu M, Chowdhury K, Mallik S, Dhar G, Biswas A. Observational assessment and correlates to blood pressure of future physicians of Bengal. Niger J Clin Pract. 2013;16:433-8.
Ali H Mokdad, Earl S Ford, Barbara A Bowman, William H Dietz, Frank Vinicor, Virginia S Bales, et al. Obesity-Related Health Risk Factors 2001. JAMA. 2003;289:76-9.
Hubert HB, Feinleib M, McNamara PM, Castelli WP. Obesity as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease: a 26 year follow-up of participants in the Framingham Heart Study. Circulation. 1983;67:968-77.
Manson JE, Colditz GA, Stamper MJ, Willett WC, Rosner B, Monson RR, et al. A prospective study of obesity and risk of coronary heart disease in women. New England Journal of Medicine. 1990;322:882-9.
