Prevalence of Obesity with the Basic Health Consequences among the Preclinical Medical Students in Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Introduction: Obesity or overweight and its consequences are important public health problems globally resulting in a significant cause of morbidity such as hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus, hypercholesterolaemia, coronary artery disease, stroke, sleep apnoea, cancers and mortality which also render distressing financial burden on everyone. It is imperative to intervene in momentous strategies for early detection to prevent the weight-related epidemic. Methods: It was a health survey conducted in June 2019 to detect the prevalence of obesity and overweight problems and the resultant detrimental health conditions among the year 1 and year 2 medical students of the University Malaysia Sabah. The survey was done on 145 students aged between 19-23 years. The height, weight, BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure and capillary random blood glucose were measured. Pearson correlation and Chi-square tests were done to find an association between BMI and probable factors using SPSS. Results: The prevalence of obesity was 8.2%. High blood pressure was recorded in 23.45% participants where both systolic and diastolic blood pressure was high in 18.6%, only systolic blood pressure was high in 37.2% and only diastolic blood pressure was high in 28.3% among 145 students. There was no impaired glucose tolerance among the participants. There was a positive correlation between BMI and systolic (r=0.518, p<0.001) and diastolic (r=0.229, p<0.01) blood pressure despite age factor. There was also significant (Chi-square value=8.870, degree of freedom=1, p<0.01) association between obesity and high blood pressure. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that there was a significant association with obesity or overweight with hypertension. Healthy dietary behaviour and exercise should be encouraged. The ongoing monitoring of the population's health status remains crucially important for the prevention of hypertension, diabetes mellitus or other detrimental consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]