TY - JOUR
T1 - Correlation between body mass index (BMI) and waist to hip ratio (WHR) among undergraduate students
AU - Doustjalali, Saeid Reza
AU - Gujjar, Kumar Raghav
AU - Sharma, Ratika
AU - Nurfatiha, M.
AU - Nur Firzanah, R.
AU - Muhamad Syukri, M. K.
AU - Napatr, W. A.
AU - Nurul Syahirah, T. K. Z.
AU - Al-Jashamy, Karim
AU - Irfan, Mohammed
AU - El-Sersi, Magdi
AU - Zin, Khin Thant
AU - Linn, Nyan Htain
AU - Lin, Wai Ma
AU - Appalanaidu, Vinothini
AU - Kadir, Samiah Yasmin Abdul
AU - Mohamad, Rohaini
AU - Ah-Chin, Wong
AU - Yusuf, Ahmad
AU - Rebecca Wong, S. Y.
AU - Kumarasamy, Vinoth
AU - Nadankutty, Jeyaseelan
AU - Nazrila Suhaimi, S. F.
AU - Dar, Hlaing Thaw
AU - Htwe, Myo Nandar
AU - Nazmul, M. H.M.
AU - Khalaf, Ahmad Taha
AU - Htet, Htet
AU - Yong, Saw Ai
AU - Bhuiyan, Munira
AU - Christinal, P. W.T.
AU - Al-Dubai, Sami Abdo Radman
AU - Fernandez, Fidel
AU - Muftah, A. E.
AU - Mirhasheminasab, Seyyed Amirhossein
AU - Mansor, Marzalina
AU - Sabet, Negar Shafiei
N1 - Includes bibliographical references.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - Body mass index (BMI) is a common, inexpensive and simple method to categorize individuals as underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese I and obese II. However, this method does not reflect body shape and fat distribution. Waist to hip ratio (WHR) is a more recent and accurate method to measure body fat distribution and can be used routinely. The purpose of this study was to compare BMI and WHR of Malaysian undergraduate medical students. The weight, height, waist line and hip line of 82 undergraduate medical students studying at SEGi University, Malaysia were measured and used to calculate BMI and WHR using the standard formula. For males, the highest mean BMI was recorded for Indian students followed by those for Malay and Chinese. However, for males, the highest mean WHR was recorded for Malay followed by those for Chinese and Indian. For females, both mean BMI and WHR were highest for Malay, followed by those for Indian and Chinese. No correlation was found between BMI and WHR among the overall and male participants respectively. However significant correlation was present between BMI and WHR among female participants (r value = 0.623). In conclusion, in this research, there was correlation between BMI and WHR in female population. Therefore the Malaysian females, specially Malay females should be more aware of their health, their food intake and they should take better care of their health, do more physical activity in order to have healthier life and get less exposed to diseases caused by high BMI and WHR.
AB - Body mass index (BMI) is a common, inexpensive and simple method to categorize individuals as underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese I and obese II. However, this method does not reflect body shape and fat distribution. Waist to hip ratio (WHR) is a more recent and accurate method to measure body fat distribution and can be used routinely. The purpose of this study was to compare BMI and WHR of Malaysian undergraduate medical students. The weight, height, waist line and hip line of 82 undergraduate medical students studying at SEGi University, Malaysia were measured and used to calculate BMI and WHR using the standard formula. For males, the highest mean BMI was recorded for Indian students followed by those for Malay and Chinese. However, for males, the highest mean WHR was recorded for Malay followed by those for Chinese and Indian. For females, both mean BMI and WHR were highest for Malay, followed by those for Indian and Chinese. No correlation was found between BMI and WHR among the overall and male participants respectively. However significant correlation was present between BMI and WHR among female participants (r value = 0.623). In conclusion, in this research, there was correlation between BMI and WHR in female population. Therefore the Malaysian females, specially Malay females should be more aware of their health, their food intake and they should take better care of their health, do more physical activity in order to have healthier life and get less exposed to diseases caused by high BMI and WHR.
KW - Body mass index
KW - Obesity
KW - Waist to hip ratio
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84983315595&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84983315595&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3923/pjn.2016.618.624
DO - 10.3923/pjn.2016.618.624
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84983315595
VL - 15
SP - 618
EP - 624
JO - Pakistan Journal of Nutrition
JF - Pakistan Journal of Nutrition
SN - 1680-5194
IS - 7
ER -
