BMI: is defined as body mass index which is value calculated using height and weight of the person . Obesity and overweight in age around adolescence are the global problems on the rise especially very common in India. Prevention of obesity and hypertension in young age is very important to prevent major problems like cardiovascular diseases later.
Aim : Prevention of obesity is always better than its treatment and carries a lot of importance about this in health workers( including dental students ).Awareness of high risk factors like fast food , increased carbonated drink consumption ,watching television ,internet surfing and lack of outdoor activities is essential to prevent overweight /obesity.
This study is done to know awareness among these health groups ( 1st year dental students)so that they can know about this growing problem and take steps to prevent this and its sequalae This study was also done to measure blood pressure and BMI in dental students to find out if there is any correlation between blood pressure and BMI in subjects and create awareness in others also.
Material and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study and ethical clearance was obtained from ethical committee. The subjects for the study were all students of 1st year BDS (Bachelor of dental sciences ) course in a dental college. All students(101 out of 110) who gave informed consent , validated predesigned questionnaire were used to interview these students .Height , weight and blood pressure was taken for these students and then data was analysed for BMI calculation and results.
Results and Observations: Out of 101 students , 72 were females (71.2%) and 29 were males (28.7%).
In present study ,total overweight students were 25.7% and 17.82% were obese with BMI >30 and grade 1 obesity while 1.9% were of grade 2 obesity.
Out of 101 only 40 students i.e 39.6% only are aware of their Body mass index (BMI) while 61 were not conscious /aware of their BMI(60.4% ).80% females (32/40) are found to be more aware while males were only 20% aware (i.e. 8/40).
Blood pressure was taken in all students and 13 students were found to be hypertensive ,out of which 5 were males and 8 were females.
Data comparison showed that BP indices found significantly high in overweight groups.
We found a highly significant association of BMI with blood pressure in our study. Also in our study only 35% students were found aware of obesity and its complications, females more aware than males.
Conclusion: This study also showed dental students being overweight and had suffered with one of its sequelae like hypertension too. This is attributed to their lack of awareness of overweight ,obesity and its sequelae . This is also found to be correlated with lack of physical activity ,consumption of junk food , habbit of not consuming breakfast ,consuming food in canteen and mess in dental students and related to obesity and overweight.
The problem of obesity is on rise and there is a definite need to make dental students aware of good eating habbits. Healthy eating ,regular physical exercise and awareness of consequences of obesity helps them for their own better physical and mental health .Their this knowledge also helps in guiding their patients for controlling their obesity and thus contributing to prevent growing pandemic of this disease in the society.
