ABSTRACT
Background: Students are generally prone to weight related problems due to sedentary lifestyle and disordered eating habits. The objective of current study was to evaluate the body mass index among MBBS and Physiotherapy students of Peshawar and to see its association with gender and academic year
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among MBBS and Physiotherapy students in Peshawar, from Sep 2016 to Sep 2017. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among 250 students of different institutes, 213 filled questionnaires were returned. Body mass index [BMI] was used to classify underweight, overweight, and obesity grade I and grade II. Data was analyzed using SPSS-20
Results: Mean age of participants was 21.77+/-1.45. Females were 137 [64.3%] while males were 76 [35.7%]. Unmarried participants were 192 [90.1%], while 21[9.9%] were married. Mean height, weight and BMI of the participants were 1.654 meter, 61.1 Kg, and 22.8 respectively. One hundred and thirty [61.0%] were MBBS, and 83 [39.0%] were Physiotherapy students. Out of 213 respondents, 109 [51.2%] had normal BMI, 21[9.9%] were underweight, 41 [19.2%] were overweight, 31 [14.6%] were grade I obese and 11 [5.2%] were grade II obese. Majority of 1[st] year [68.0%] and 4[th] year [72.7%] students had normal BMI. BMI was not associated with gender or academic year [p>0.05]. Mean BMI in MBBS students was higher than the physiotherapy students [23.3 vs 22.1 Kg/M[2], p=0.03]
Conclusion: The prevalence of obesity appears higher in our students