Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Introduction: Epidemiological evidences suggest a strong relation between birth weight and some diseases in adult life (hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (CVD)). It is thought that an adverse intrauterine environment provokes adaptive response to ensure fetal survival which if persist into adulthood may cause metabolic and CVD disease. Aim: The aim of the work was to study association between birth weight and metabolic syndrome parameters among medical students, aiming to avail information to build the natural history of weight gain during early adulthood. Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Al-Neelain Public University; which was done as part of a larger study that examined the prevalence of obesity among medical students (50) whose birth weight data were also involved in this study. Ethical approval was obtained and data (collected by questionnaire, blood pressure, anthropometric measurements and blood sample) were analyzed using SPSS (version 23). Results: In this study metabolic syndrome (MetS) prevalence was 2% and 4.1% using IDF and ATPIII definitions respectively. MetS risk factors were highly prevalent; 32.6% for obesity and overweight, 48.1% for hypertension and pre hypertension. The relationship between birth weight and adulthood obesity show inverted J shape relation with a tendency for higher BMI among lower birth weight. LBW show statistical significance in relation to uncontrolled eating habit P value=0.004 when compared to appropriate birth weight. Mean value for BP was higher among large for gestational age LGA and low birth weight LBW compared to appropriate birth weight individuals. Conclusion: High prevalence of overweight/obesity as well as pre-hypertension/HTN and an inverted J shape relationship between birth weight and adulthood obesity was found.

Biography

Tasabeeh Alnoor is a Teaching Assistant and Associate Professor of Physiology in Al-Neelain University, Associate Professor in International University of Africa and also a Medical Student in Al-Neelain University, Sudan

E-mail: Tasabeehabdoalnoor@gmail.com