Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Medical and Allied Science students of Karnataka, India

Background: Overweight and obesity is the underlying cause of death for about 3 million people each year. More than 100 million individuals are obese in India. Few studies have been carried out among Indian undergraduate students where irregular dietary pattern, stress and anxiety are more prevalent due to academic pressure. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of over-weight and obesity in Medical and Allied Science students.Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 among 922 medical and allied science undergraduate students of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Karnataka, after obtaining the institutional ethical approval and written informed consent. Information was obtained with the help of pre-designed, pretested semi-structured questionnaire by self-administered method and anthropometric measurement.Results: Overall prevalence of overweight and obesity among students was 23.6% and 5.2% respectively. Prevalence of overweight among male students was 28.7% and 18.6 % in female. Obese male students were 5.5% and 5 % were obese in female.Conclusions: About one fourth of the students were overweight and more than one in twenty students were obese. Overweight and obesity was more in male than female.