Evaluation of somatotype, dietary intake and blood pressure among female students in Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Malaysia

Abstract

Somatotypes is a description of human anatomy, which provides a quantitative overview of physics as an integral whole. Normally it was presented in a three-number rating, in which each number represents a somatotype variable. The first number represents the component of endomorphy (relative fatness), the second number represents the component of mesomorphy (muscularity) and the last number represents the component of ectomorphy (relative linearity). Multiple investigations have shown the association between somatotype with nutrition and health status. This cross-sectional study on the somatotype component, dietary intake and health status have been conducted among ninety-two female UMT students. Somatotype was calculated using the Carter and Health method. Dietary consumption was assessed using the 24-hour dietary recall technique. While blood pressure was assessed by using standard procedure. Median somatotype score of respondents was (6.39, 4.27, 1.10) indicated that respondents were in mesomorphic endomorph category. By further classifying them into dominant somatotype categories, 74% of respondents were endomorph dominant, 14% mesomorph dominant and 12% ectomorph dominant. BMI of the respondent under normal category was 47.8%, followed by obese (21.7%), overweight (18.5%) and underweight (12%). Moreover, the energy intake of respondents was 1533 kcal/day with the median percentage of total energy contributed by macronutrients was 50.26% derived from carbohydrate, 33.46% from fat and 16.71% from protein. The highest fulfilments of micronutrients were vitamin A (89.44%), but vitamin C (29.74%), calcium (42.56%) and iron (37.95%) did not exceed 50% of RNI. However, sodium intake exceeded RNI by 123.36%. Furthermore, the majority of female students have normal blood pressure with (105.53±9.97/74.65±8.55) mm Hg. The relationship between endomorphy component with systolic blood pressure was (r = 0.253, p = 0.015) and ectomorphy component with systolic blood pressure was (- 0.259, p = 0.013). However, there were no relationships between somatotype components and nutrient intake found in this study.