Relationship between self-rated health status and physical activity in obese South Indian patients

Abstract

Background: Regular physical activity can improve people's overall health and reduce various risks for morbidity and mortality due to a sedentary lifestyle. Although the evidence linking obesity with many chronic diseases is well established, the relationship with self-rated health is not clear. The study aimed to assess the relationship between physical activity and self-rated health and how it is related to obesity.Methods: The cross-sectional study included 132 individuals above18 years, of both genders, with BMI above 25kg/m2. Data was collected using a structured proforma which included apart from demographic parameters, anthropometry parameters, self-reported physical activity, health status and stress levels of the subjects. Chi-square test/Fisher's exact test was used to assess the association between BMI, physical activity and self-rated health.Results: A total of 132 subjects were included with a mean age of 48.44±11.23 years, with an almost equal proportion of males and females. The mean of BMI was 29.54±3.99. Most of them reported having normal physical activity (61.36%) with only 3% of them having high physical activity. The self-rated health of the subjects revealed 45.45% of them is having fair health and 43.18% of them having poor health. The mean a number of hours spent by sitting/sedentary activity in a week were 32.32±21.09.Conclusions: The study findings revealed that the irrespective of the degree of physical activity both overweight and obese subjects rated their health fair to poor.