Abstract

PREVALENCE OF OBESITY AMONG SAMPLE OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Zinah Ali Abdulkareem*, Ishraq Ahmed Chiad and Dr. Wafaa Ahmed Mohamed

Abstract

Background: Obesity and overweight are considered a public health problem due to their high prevalence in different age groups, mainly in young adults, as well as the short, medium, and long term consequences of obesity, obesity is one of the major disorders associated with the development of chronic degenerative diseases and their complications, with a consequent decrease in life expectancy and quality of life in the affected people. In fact, obesity is linked to 60% of deaths due to non- communicable diseases. Objective: To study the prevalence and factors associated with overweight and obesity among college science students. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study started from 1st of November, 2016 to 15th of march, 2017. A total of1008 students (384 male and 624 female) between 18 to =>24 years of age had been selected for the present study. The data was collected by direct interview with the students using close ended question and body anthropometry was taken to every participant (including weight and height were measure BMI was calculated and used to assess weight status). A questionnaire was distributed to each subject; Age, gender, dietary habits, sport activity and family history of obesity, the data was analyzed using SPSS version 22. Statistical significance was considered whenever the P value was equal or less than 0.05. Results: In this study about two thirds (63%) of the students were of normal weight; whereas the prevalence of overweight and obesity among them was 27.9% and 6.6% respectively. the prevalence of obesity was more common among male students compared to female (7.8% compared to 5.9%). The prevalence of obesity in medical science college students nearly equal to the humanity science college students (6.9% compared to 6.4%). Conclusion: According to results obtained, the author concluded that overweight and obesity are a problem among college science students, despite the low prevalence of overweight and obesity in the studied sample as compared to prevalence in neighboring countries.

Keywords: Prevalence; Overweight; Obesity; Students; Cross-sectional study.