Abstract

Background & objectives: This study was conducted to assess the burden of overweight and obesity among UG medical students by measurement of body fat mass percentage (BF%) and to evaluate the validity of BF% as a clinical marker of obesity by its correlation with BMI.

Methods: The research was conducted as a cross sectional, observational study using the principle of Bioelectric Impedance Analysis for measurement of body fat

Results: There were 237 males (55.5%) and 187 females (44.5%) among the study participants. The burden of overweight and obesity among the students was found to be 26% and 9.8% respectively according to WHO global BMI criteria whereas it was 18.8% and 35.7% respectively, if the Asian criterion was used. This abnormality was pervasive across all the four years of UG MBBS students. The startling finding is that students who were labeled as ‘Normal’ using the BMI criterion were found to be obese by BF% assessment (43%) and even ‘Underweight’ students were found to have more than normal levels of BF% (15.2%). Measurement of waist circumference (WC) showed that 146 (34.8%) of the students had WC higher than normal. Likewise, 145 (34.5%) of the students had Waist-Hip Ratio higher than normal. Abnormalities of all above parameters put the students at risk of NCDs.

Conclusion: The study shows a high burden of overweight and obesity in medical students. Using body fat percentage as a clinical marker of adiposity is more desirable than using BMI only to screen clinical obesity.