Relationship between Fat Intakes and Other Risk Factors with Overweight and Obesity among Medical Students of UniKL RCMP

Abstract

Background: Obesity is one of the biggest challenges that Malaysians need to overcome especially among medical students. Aim: To determine the relationship between fat intake and other risk factors with overweight and obesity among medical students in the Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Royal College of Medicine Perak (UniKL RCMP). Material & Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among year 2 MBBS students of UniKL RCMP. A total of 97 students were randomly selected from 151 students in that batch. The data was collected using online survey. Three set of questionnaires which consist of sociodemographic profiles, food intake frequency and behaviour of fat intake were distributed to selected participants. The data were analysed using SPSS software and appropriate statistical tests were applied to test the hypothesis. Results: Out of 97 respondents, 34 (35.1%) were males and 63 (64.9%) were females. 34.0% of participants had a family history of obesity and 49.5% perceived themselves as physically active. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among the students was 19.6% and 7.2% respectively. The study showed that half of students (50.5%) were taking high fat diet and majority of them frequently taking food higher in saturated fats. No association found between fat intakes, active lifestyle, and fatty food preference with body mass index (BMI) status (p >0.05). The only significant association found was between family history of obesity and BMI status (p<0.05). Conclusion: In conclusion, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in this study was 26.8% which is lower than the national average. However, the pattern of food intake shown that the medical students in RCMP have tendencies to eat more foods with high saturated fat. The fat intake seems not associated with overweight and obesity. Other risk factors such as active lifestyle perception and fatty food preference were also not associated with BMI status in this study (p>0.05). Only the family history of obesity seems to be strongly related to obesity (p<0.05).