Body Composition, Nutritional Status, and Socio-Demographic Factors Among University Students and Teachers in Bangladesh: A Pilot Study

Abstract

BackgroundBody composition, particularly visceral fat content, is regarded as an important determinant of major metabolic disorder. People with similar BMI could have differential body fat and muscle composition with different metabolic outcome. Epidemiological research largely focuses on BMI or relative body weight across the range of height and waist hip ratio (WHR) as a index of central body shape; however, body composition has hitherto given little importance in Bangladesh. Therefore, we designed a small pilot cross sectional study to assess anthropometrics, the body composition by bioelectrical impedance and nutritional status and its differences among students and teacher of Islamic University, Bangladesh. MethodsA total of 133 participants (median age of 22.51±3.86 years), students and teachers, were recruited. In addition to BMI and waist-hip ratio (WHR), a body composition analyzer (based on bioelectrical impedance) was used to determine the body composition parameter. Descriptive statistics, chi-square, T test and Pearson correlations were done. ResultsConsiderable differences were observed among various age groups and genders. Most of the respondents had a higher metabolic age (definition) than the chronological age, and 42.86% had high fat percentage. Male had lower body fat (19.56% vs 26.29%) but more visceral fat (4.96% vs 4.32) than female. Visceral fat was significantly (p<0.001) raised in older age groups than younger ones (10.26% vs 4.33%, P<0.05). The cut-off values of BMI were normal in range for both genders, and WHR for male and female were 0.83 and 0.81 respectively. Body protein, muscle, water, moisture, and abio-salt content were higher at the age of 40 years, and female respondents had the lowest ones compared to males. ConclusionUnhealthy visceral fat was higher in male and older age group. A healthy level of all body composition parameters was observed in young age groups compared to the older ones.