Association of Obesity and Overweight with Different Risk Factors Among Female Public Health Students: A Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk factor to health. A crude population measure of obesity is the body mass index (BMI), which is used to classify weight status, overweight is the person with a BMI of 25 or more, while a person with a BMI equal to or more than 30 is considered obese.The aim of the study is to assess students' perception on obesity &overweight association with different risk factors, clarify students' knowledge, behaviors and practices that increase risks of obesity, overweight and related diseases correlating all these with the BMI status of the respondents.A cross-sectional study was conducted to achieve the study objectives among female students of public health at Umm Al-Qura University, in which 50% of students (179) were randomly selected using stratified sampling technique.The study clarified that 84% of students understood BMI-obesity relationship, while 16% didn’t know. The study found that the perceptions, knowledge of overweight and obese respondents towards associated risk factors was very low in comparing to normal and underweight respondents, in term of practicing physical activities, study clarified that 79.4%of students were practicing physical activities, their majority were from normal and underweight BMI participants.The study concluded toweakness in the perception, knowledge and practices of students on BMI relation with different risk factors among overweight and obese students although they understood the BMI-Obesity relationship. The study clarified that the knowledge of students on major risk factors of obesity, such as relations with diabetes mellitus type 2, Hypertension, Hyperlipidemia, among students with normal BMI were acceptable. Study recommended for more concentration in academic activities to change these perceptions.