Nutritional Assessment by Selected Anthropometric Variables among Second Year Students of a Private Medical College , Kolkata – a Cross-sectional Study

Introduction : Poor nutritional status can be defined by the states of under-nutrition or over-nutrition. Malnutrition, in every form, presents significant threats to human health. Today the world faces a double burden of malnutrition that includes both undernutrition and overweight, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The prevalence of malnutrition especially overnutrition is increasing day by day. The prevalence of obesity has increased worldwide in the past ~50 years, reaching pandemic levels . Medical students generally live a sedentary life and under lots of academic stress. Objectives: This study was designed to determine the magnitude of the problem thus to estimate the nutritional status of the study participants by selected anthropometric variables . Methods : This is Institution based Observational Study Cross Sectional in design . The study setting was a private medical college in Kolkata, West Bengal. The study population was 2nd year Undergraduate MBBS students and the duration of study was 3 months from Sep 24 to Nov 24. Second year MBBS batch was selected purposively and the participants were selected by census methods. Anthropometric measurement was done maintaining standard protocol as per WHO STEPS guidelines . Result : 34 % of the study participants were overweight and 9 % were obese. More than one third of the male study participants have increased waist circumference and more than normal waist hip ratio . Among the female about two third were having truncal obesity The prevalence of NWO is 22.6 % among male and 57.7% among female. 17.4 % of the study participants have substantial risk of developing NCD and have high waist height ratio. Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher as compared to NFHS 5. Females were more prone to develop NWO. More than half of the study participants had higher risk of developing NCD. Proper intervention is required at various level to minimize the burden of the disease.