Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure Profile of Newly Enrolled Health Sciences Students in a Medical University of Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

Objectives: To measure the Body Mass Index (BMI) and Blood pressure (BP) of newly enrolled undergraduate students in a medical university in Karachi, Pakistan, and to assess any association between BMI and BP levels among them. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on pre-existing three-year data of 1403 students. The age, gender, BMI, and BP were recorded. The BMI of students was classified according to the Asian cutoff and BP was categorized using the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC) classification. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 24. Descriptive statistics were used to present quantitative and qualitative variables. The association was measured using the Chi-square test of significance. A p-value of < 0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Total 1403 students with a mean age of 19 + 1.4 years students were enrolled including 397 (28.3%) males and 1006 (71.7%) females. A total of 667 (47.5%) students had a normal weight while 216 (15.4%) students were underweight, and 512 (36.5%) were either overweight or obese. Mean systolic BP was 111.42 + 10.7 mmHg and mean diastolic BP was 73.45 + 7.96 mmHg. Most students had normal systolic BP 901 (64.2%) while 501 (35.7%) had prehypertension or stage- I or II hypertension (HTN). The majority of the students had normal diastolic BP 1357 (96.7%) and 45 (3.3%) had stage- I or II HTN. There was a significant association between BMI and BP (p<0.001). Conclusion: A significant number of the students are either under or overweight. There is a significant relationship between BMI and BP levels.

Keywords

• underweight
• overweight
• obesity
• hypertension
• blood pressure
• medical students