Utility of consensus statement in assessment of obesity: A study among undergraduate medical students from rural northwest India

Abstract

Introduction: In India, obesity is emerging as an important health problem particularly in the urban areas, paradoxically coexisting with under nutrition. Almost 30-65% of adult Indians are either overweight or obese or have abdominal obesity. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used to assess the prevalence of obesity among undergraduate medical using consensus statement for obesity in India. Results: The results of the body mass index (BMI) calculations show 26 females and 4 males (29.79% of total students) with a BMI of <18 kg/m 2 as underweight, whereas 13 boys and 4 girls (15.54% of total students) as obese with a BMI of 25 kg/m 2 and above. A total of 18 boys and 6 girls (21.26% of total students) were overweight with a BMI between 23 and 24.9 kg/m 2 . Discussion: It is estimated that by application of these guidelines, additional 10-15% of Indian population would be labeled as obese or overweight. We see this very clearly in our study, where we see an increase of 14.53% of students classified as obese and 5.93% students as overweight on using the guidelines of the consensus statement.

Keywords

• Consensus statement
• obesity
• utility