Journal of Obesity & Weight Loss Therapy
Open Access

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of and factors associated with overweight and obesity among medical students of Public Sector University in Karachi, Pakistan. Methodology: A university based cross-sectional analytic study was conducted in public sector?s medical university of Karachi. Data was collected from 1 st year to final year medical students through simple random sampling technique by using self administered questionnaire followed by anthropometric measurement. The outcome variable ?overweight or obesity? was defined by using South Asian BMI (≥23) cut-off points. Logistic regression technique was applied by using software SPSS to determine the factors associated with overweight and obesity among medical students. Results: A total of 428 medical students participated in the study. The overall percentage of women (64.7%) was higher than men (35.3%) in our sample. Family history of obesity, hypertension and diabetes was present 33.9%, 49.8%, 43.7% respectively. Prevalence of overweight and obesity among medical students was found to be 14.7%, 12.4% respectively. Among boys it was 47.7% whereas among girls it was 15.9%. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was associated with male gender [adjusted OR=4.96 (95% C.I: 3.02-8.15)], lunch taking from college/outside home [adjusted OR=3.67 (95% C.I: 2.44-6.61)], snacks between the meals [adjusted OR=1.95 (95% C.I: 1.03-3.68)], and tea drinking habit [adjusted OR=2.50 (95% C.I: 1.38-4.54)]. Conclusion: Prevalence of overweight and obesity among medical students was high in our sample population. Multifaceted efforts are required to target this high risk group of medical students to prevent obesity and its related morbidity and mortality.

Biography

Sajid Mahmood earned his MBBS degree in 2005 followed by MSc. Epidemiology & Biostatistics degree in 2009. Recently he completed his Master of Public Health programme from United Kingdom. At the moment he is doing his PhD (public health) from University of Sheffield, UK. His area of interest is childhood obesity and its prevention. He has published couple of papers in reputed journals even during his student life. He is a member of International Epidemiological Association (IEA) and reviewer of Journal of Pakistan Medical Students (JPMS).