A Cross-Sectional Study to Assess the Physical Activity, Eating Behaviour and Correlation of Overweight and Obesity among College Students of Various Colleges in Indore District

Abstract

Background: Overweight and obesity are the fifth greatest risk of global deaths. Over 1.9 billion persons aged 18 and older were overweight in 2016. Over 650 million of these men and women were obese. Instead of changes in dietary intake or other causes, it has been suggested that the increase in body weight in industrialized nations is mostly the result of decreased levels of physical activity.Aim and Objectives: To assess the eating behaviour/pattern and type of physical activity/duration of physicalactivity among college students in Indore city, and to determine correlation of eating behaviour & physical activity with overweight /obesity.Materials and Methods: A cross–sectional study conducted between January to June 2023 among 200 randomly selected students of age 17 to 25 years of various colleges of Central India in Indore district who gave consent, using a pre-designed, semi-structured, pre-tested questionnaire. Data entered in Microsoft excel was analysed using SPSS software25.0 (trial version).Results: 46% had Body Mass Index (BMI) in normal range and 42.5% were overweight. 60% male participantshad their BMI in normal range and 30.4% were overweight whereas 58.8% female participants were overweight.Majority (75.3%) of female participants had low Metabolic Equivalent of Task(MET) score whereas only 48.7% of male participants had low MET score. Both the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) Scores and International Physical Activity Questionnaire(IPAQ) Scores were found to be statistically significant (p-value <0.05) among BMI categories.100% of obese participants, 91.8% of overweight participants and 32.6% of participants with BMI in normal range had low MET score, found to be statistically significant (p-value<0.001).
 Conclusion: TFEQ and MET scores were found to be statistically significant (p-value<0.001) among BMI categories suggesting that, both eating behaviour and physical activity were associated with overweight and obesity.