RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Body mass index is a valuable tool to assess the nutritional status of an individual. It can be used to identify subjects who are underweight and obese. The present study was conducted with a view to identify the prevalence of underweight and obesity among Nepalese medical students. The study also detects the body frame size of these medical students by elbow breadth measurements. AIM OF STUDY: To measure Body mass index and body frame size based on elbow breadth measurements. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 191 (males, 106) students participated in the study. The ratio of male to female was 1.24:1. The elbow breadth was measured by a vernier caliper (Tajima, Japan) to the nearest 0.1 mm. The body mass index (kg/m2) (BMI) was calculated using the height and weight measurements taken previously. Body frame size was obtained using a table based on elbow width. Data were analyzed using Microsoft excel for Windows 98. RESULTS: The study reveals that the prevalence of underweight and overweight in males of Nepal Medical college Vth batch were 30% and 1% and of IVth batch were 23.2% and 12.15% respectively. Of the females 38.6% and 2.2% of the IVth batch and 36.6% and 4.9% of the Vth batch were underweight and overweight respectively. The body frame size results indicted that 70% of the males and 61% of the females had small body frame. The study revealed a significant degree of under nutrition in male (26.4%) and female (20%) of Nepalese medical students. CONCLUSION: The present study observed that majority of the medical students of the Nepal Medical College were of small body frame size.