HOME JOURNALS CONTACT

Pakistan Journal of Nutrition

Year: 2010 | Volume: 9 | Issue: 2 | Page No.: 162-166
DOI: 10.3923/pjn.2010.162.166
Gender Differences of Body Mass Index in Adults of Pakistan: A Case Study of Multan City
Muhammad Aslam, Aamir Saeed, G.R. Pasha and Saima Altaf

Abstract: Obesity is an epidemic health problem worldwide that can result in many serious and sometimes, fatal diseases. It is very important to study such prevalence in developing countries, like Pakistan where people cannot afford the medical tolls, additionally, added to their non-meeting budgets, due to problems of obesity. The present study addresses the same issue by taking into account of 2000 adults from Multan city as case study of Pakistan. Although many of similar studies have also been carried out in the region but the present study evaluates the obesity prevalence according to recommendations of World Health Organization that in Asia Pacific Region, a person is considered to be overweight if BMI > 23 rather BMI > 25 and to be obese if BMI > 25 rather than if BMI > 30. According to this new definition, we report that more than 46% people are overweight (18.95%) and obese (27.85%). The percentage of normal people is just 28.65 while 24.55% are underweight. We report the mean MBI to be 22.87±0.086 (S.E), males have 13 kg more weight as compared to that of females have and males are more than 5 inches taller as compared to females, on the average. It is noted that mean BMI of males (23.51±0.11) and mean BMI of females (22.05±0.133) are different significantly. We find that 55.12% among males and 36.15% among females are either overweight or obese. The percentile plot of the data also displays the similar picture. We further report that married people are three times obese as compared to unmarried ones.

Fulltext PDF

How to cite this article
Muhammad Aslam, Aamir Saeed, G.R. Pasha and Saima Altaf, 2010. Gender Differences of Body Mass Index in Adults of Pakistan: A Case Study of Multan City. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, 9: 162-166.

Keywords: Obesity, BMI of females and BMI of males

REFERENCES

  • Afridi, A.K. and A. Khan, 2004. Prevalence and etiology of obesity: An overview. Pak. J. Nutr., 3: 14-25.
    CrossRef    Direct Link    


  • Bharmal, F.Y., 2000. Trends in nutrition transitions: Pakistan in focus. J. Pak. Med. Assoc., 50: 159-167.
    PubMed    Direct Link    


  • Bovet, P., G. Madeleine, D. Padayachy and N. Stettler, 2004. Increasing prevalence of overweight among seychelles children, 1998-2002. SMDJ Seychelles Med. Dental J., 7: 1-7.
    Direct Link    


  • El-Hazmi, M.A. and A.S. Warsy, 1997. Prevalence of obesity in the Saudi population. Ann. Saudi Med., 17: 302-306.
    PubMed    Direct Link    


  • Ferris, M., S.L. Hogan, H. Chin, D.A. Shoham and D.S. Gipson et al., 2007. Obesity, albuminuria and urinalysis findings in US young adults from the add health wave III study. Clin. J. Am. Soc. Nephrol., 2: 1207-1214.
    PubMed    Direct Link    


  • Guo, S.S., A.F. Roche, W.C. Chumlea, J.D. Gardner and R.M. Siervogel, 1994. The predictive value of childhood body mass index values for overweight at age 35 years. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 59: 810-819.
    PubMed    Direct Link    


  • Jaleel, R., 2009. Impact of maternal obesity on pregnancy outcome. J. Surgery Pak., 14: 2-6.
    Direct Link    


  • Jawad, F., 2005. The obesity epidemic-a challenge of this century. J. Pak. Med. Assocc., 55: 94-94.
    PubMed    Direct Link    


  • Khan, M.H., H. Khan, G. Sarwar, B. Iftikhar, A. Jan, M. Naimatullah and A. Gul, 2008. Study of obese persons profile at D.I. Khan, NWFP, Pakistan. Gomal J. Med. Sci., 6: 77-80.
    Direct Link    


  • Khurram, M., S.J. Paracha, H.T. Khar and Z. Hasan, 2006. Obesity related complications in 100 obese subjects and their age matched controls. J. Pak. Med. Assoc., 56: 50-53.
    PubMed    


  • Kiyani, K.A., S.I. Ahmad, A. Saeed, R. Rashid and K. Abrar, 2002. Evaluation of obesity with identification of comorbidities and risk status. J. Rawal Med. Coll., 6: 82-90.
    Direct Link    


  • Leung, T.Y., T.N. Leung, D.S. Sahota, O.K. Chan and L.W. Chan et al., 2008. Trends in maternal obesity and associated risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes in a population of Chinese women. Br. J. Obstet. Gynaecol., 115: 1529-1537.
    PubMed    Direct Link    


  • Marion, N. and M. Jacobson, 2000. Halting the obesity epidemic: A public health policy approach. Public Health Rep., 115: 12-24.
    PubMed    Direct Link    


  • Mokdad, A.H., B.A. Bowman, E.S. Ford, F. Vinicor, J.S. Marks and J.P. Koplan, 2002. The continuing epidemics of obesity and diabetes in the united states. J. Am. Med. Assoc., 286: 1195-1200.
    PubMed    Direct Link    


  • Nanan, D.J., 2002. The obesity pandemic-implications for Pakistan. J. Pak. Med. Assoc., 52: 342-346.
    PubMed    


  • Padula, G., 2008. Comparison between references of the overweight and obesity prevalence, through the body mass index, in argentinean children. Arch. Latinoam. Nutr., 58: 330-335.
    PubMed    Direct Link    


  • Pappas, G., T. Akhtar, P.J. Gergen, W.C. Hadden and A.Q. Khan, 2001. Health status of the Pakistani population: A health profile and comparison with the United States. Am. J. Public Health, 91: 93-98.
    PubMed    


  • Peytremann-Bridevaux, I., 2007. Prevalence of overweight and obesity in rural and urban settings of 10 European countries. Prev. Med., 44: 442-446.
    PubMed    Direct Link    


  • Rehman, T., Z. Rizvi, U. Siddiqui, S. Ahmad and A. Sophie et al., 2003. Obesity in adolescents of Pakistan. J. Pak. Med. Assoc., 53: 315-319.
    Direct Link    


  • Shah, S.M., D. Nanan, M.H. Rahbar, M. Rahim and G. Nowshad, 2004. Assessing obesity and overweight in a high mountain Pakistani population. Trop. Med. Int. Health, 9: 526-532.
    PubMed    


  • WHO., 1998. Obesity: Preventing and managing the global epidemic. Report of a WHO Consultation on Obesity, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.


  • Zohoori, N., T.A. Mroz, B. Popkin, E. Glinskaya, M. Lokshin and D. Mancini, 1998. Monitoring the economic transition in the Russian federation and its implications for demographic crisis: The Russian longitudinal survey. World Dev., 26: 1977-1993.
    CrossRef    

  • © Science Alert. All Rights Reserved