Associations of Body Mass Index with Demographics, Lifestyle, Food Intake, and Mental Health among Postpartum Women: A Structural Equation Approach

Overweight among Medical Students of a Medical College

Introduction

Overweight and obesity are rapidly increasing worldwide, posing a significant global health challenge. Medical students are at a higher risk of developing obesity due to factors such as a sedentary lifestyle, inadequate physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns, elevated stress levels, and the extensive amount of information they need to learn. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of overweight among medical students of a medical college.

Methods

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students of a medical college from 5 October 2022 to 10 November 2022 after obtaining ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee. Height in meters and weight in kilograms of students were measured to calculate body mass index. A convenience sampling method was used. The point estimate at a 95% Confidence Interval was calculated.

Results

Among 261 medical students, 43 (16.47%) (11.97-20.97, 95% Confidence Interval) were overweight. Among them, 32 (74.41%) males and 11 (25.58%) females were overweight respectively.

Conclusions

The prevalence of overweight among medical students is lower than in other studies done in similar settings.

Keywords

body mass index; obesity; overweight; prevalence.

A Cross-Sectional Survey of 505 Postpartum Women to Assess Lifestyle-Related Behaviour, Barriers, and Myths Affecting Postpartum Weight Retention and Its Management

Background/Purpose

This study aims to assess lifestyle-related factors such as diet, physical activity and sleep along with common myths, beliefs, and barriers to a healthy lifestyle and resultant postpartum weight retention. It has also explored the association of the aforementioned factors with socio-demographic variables.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a comprehensive pre-validated questionnaire on a convenience sample of postpartum women using a telephonic interview schedule.

Results

A total of 505 postpartum women were recruited with median postpartum weight retention of 5 kg. More than half of the participants had incorrect dietary practices with less than one-tenth of women indulging in low/moderate-intensity physical activity. Postpartum women had poorer diet (p < 0.05) and sleep (p < 0.01) in the initial phase postpartum as compared to late postpartum. These women were also less physically active in the initial months and as the postpartum period progressed their physical activity also improved significantly (p < 0.001). Socio-demographic variables such as socio-economic status, education, and employment status were significantly associated with unhealthy lifestyle practices. Common barriers were lack of knowledge, time constraints, lack of childcare support and cultural myths and beliefs.

Conclusion

The findings of the study will help in developing a comprehensive women-centric weight management module focusing on practical guidelines for lifestyle, breastfeeding and other confounding factors associated with postpartum weight management.

Evaluation of depression and obesity indices based on applications of ANOVA, regression, structural equation modeling and Taguchi algorithm process

Introduction

Depression and obesity are the main threat among women which have been considered by many research scholars in psychology studies. In their analysis for measuring and estimating obesity and depression they were involving statistical functions.

Methods

Regression, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and in the last two decades Structural Equation Modeling are the most familiar statistical methods among research scholars. Taguchi algorism process is one the statistical methods which mostly have been applying in engineering studies. In this study we are looking at two main objectives. The first one is to introduce Taguchi algorism process and apply it in a case study in psychology area. The second objective is challenging among four statistical techniques include ANOVA, regression, SEM, and Taguchi technique in a same data. To achieve those aims we involved depression and obesity indices with other familiar indicators contain socioeconomic, screen time, sleep time, and usage fitness and nutrition mobile applications.

Results and discussion

Outputs proved that Taguchi technique is able to analyze some correlations which are not achieved by applying ANOVA, regression, and SEM. Moreover, SEM has a special capability to estimate some hidden correlations which are not possible to evaluate them by using ANOVA, regression, and even Taguchi method. In the last, we found that some correlations are significant by SEM, however, in the same data with regression those correlation were not significant. This paper could be a warning for psychology research scholars to be more careful with involving statistical methods for measuring and estimating of their research variables.

Prevalence of obesity and association between body mass index and different aspects of lifestyle in medical sciences students: A cross-sectional study

Aim

The global obesity pandemic is a major health problem with adverse effects on physical and mental health. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of obesity and the association between BMI and different aspects of lifestyle.

Design

A cross-sectional study.

Methods

Data collected from 380 medical sciences students using demographic characteristics and Eating Behavior, Physical Activity and Perceived Stress Questionnaires were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, namely analysis of variance (ANOVA), t test, Pearson's test and multivariate linear regression model.

Results

The prevalence of obesity and overweight was 3.2% and 25.3%, respectively. There was a positive and significant statistical association between emotional eating (r = .542), extrinsic eating (r = .488) and perceived stress (r = .489) with BMI, also significant and an inverse association was obtained between emotional eating (r = -.488) and total physical activity score (r = -.394) with BMI. Factors such as sex, total physical activity score and leisure time activity, external eating behaviours, emotional eating, restricted eating and perceived stress had a significant role in explaining BMI changes.

Conclusion

There is a need to develop interventions to improve dietary behaviours, management stress and access to sports facilities by health-promoting activities and the provision of online health resources.