Correlation between serum lipid profile and body mass index in young healthy medical students

Abstract

Obesity is defined as increased accumulation of fat in various tissues in the body causes impairment in the body. The cause for obesity is imbalance between calories intake and calories expenditure There is increased intake of calorie rich foods and reduced physical activity due to urbanization all over the world.Body mass index is simple index to divide obesity among adults. It is defined as person’s weight in kilograms divided by height in meter squares (m).Obesity and elevated BMI are the major causes for development of chronic diseases like stroke, hypertension, malabsorption syndrome, Type 2 diabetes and other cardiovascular disorders.BMI and obesity are the modifiable risk factors of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disorders and hypertension. This study was carried out to correlate the relationship between BMI and lipid profile among young healthy medical students. This study comprises 45 males and 55 females (100 in total) young adults aged between 18 to 25 years. The design for this study was cross-sectional survey. Ethical approval was taken from ethical committee of BMCH, Chitradurga. BMI, lipid profile levels are measured from the subjects. A total of 100 participants were tested. Among them 45 males were males and 55 were females. The mean age of the subjects was 22 years. Among them, 30 were overweight and 17 were obese while, 4 were underweight. The mean BMI was 26.72±3.45 Kg/m. Mean serum cholesterol in 100 students was 147.63 ± 15 mg/dl, mean LDL-C was 85.23±14.8 mg/dl, mean HDL-C was 23.22±5.56 mg/dl and mean triglycerides were 76.6 ±18.5 mg/dl. The mean BMI of students was 22.5 kg/m ±5.5.It was found in our study that prevalence of overweight is the major driving forces in the development of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, metabolic syndrome. Prevalence of obesity is significantly higher among young adults. This prevalence may be due to lack of awareness and unhealthy lifestyles, so health education and more preventive measures should decrease the prevalence of obesity and cardiac risks in our medical college by modifying their lifestyle.