Correlation of anthropometric parameters with lipid profile in first year medical students

Introduction: Lifestyle related risk factors are prone to increase the burden of cardiovascular diseases. Thus, the study was carried out in the medical students who are more prone to develop lifestyle diseases because of their busy schedule and less time for extracurricular activities. Objective: To study correlation of anthropometric and biochemical parameters in first year medical students. Materials and Methods: Total 150 students of first year MBBS (Batch 2014-2015) Government Medical College (GMC), Bhavnagar were enrolled in the study. Anthropometric measurements were carried out to measure body weight (BW), body height (BH), Waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC), while Body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Blood samples were collected for estimation of fasting blood glucose (FBS), Lipid profile, Total protein and Albumin. The investigations were performed on fully auto analyzer I-Lab 650, in Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory, Sir T. Hospital, Bhavanagar. Results: Results concluded that 1) Overweight and obesity among the students were 17.3% and 4% respectively; 2) When the abnormal serum cholesterol (≥200 mg%)was compared between male and female students it was statistically significant with p 0.003; 3) In the present study 03 (2.0%) students had FBS >126 mg/dl, high risk of developing Type 2 diabetes mellitus. 4) In the present study WC showed positive correlation with blood pressure, r: -0.28 and p: 0.0005 and negative correlation with HDL-Cholesterol, r: -0.21 and p: 0.008. Whereas, BMI showed positive correlation with triglyceride with r: -0.27and p: 0.0008 and negative correlation with HDL-Cholesterol with r: -0.34 and p< 0.0008 considered highly significant. Conclusion: High prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors like overweight, high blood pressure and high triglyceride were common among the medical students. So, it can be concluded that healthy lifestyles should be adopted from young adulthood since medical students are the future health providers.