Gender differences in body mass index and Blood pressure among normal healthy undergraduate students

Introduction: Obesity, measured by body mass index (BMI) is one of the morbid non -communicable diseases in the modern world. Worldwide reports have indicated a rise in the prevalence of obesity among adults. Generally it is believed that adolescence is the risky age for entering into the domain of obesity and females of this age group are more prone for this than their male counterparts. Purpose: Confirmation of this fact may help us in preventing or reducing the risk obesity by various methods like counselling on modification of lifestyle, planning of diet and choosing of exercise regime. Methodology: 74 normal healthy undergraduate students of both genders participated in this study (37 each). Blood pressure and heart rate (HR) were measured along with body mass index (BMI), basal metabolic rate (BMR) and body fat percentage (BFP) by using the Semi-Automatic BP Monitor and Body Fat Monitor (OMRON). Result: Mean BMI was more in females than in males but it was not statistically significant (p < 0.275). BFP was significantly more in females than in males (p < 0.000). Systolic blood pressure was less and HR was more in females than in males with high significance (p < 0.000). Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that adolescent age group (17 to 20 years) was not in the risk of obesity. However, the BMI values in both the genders are at the higher s ide nearing overweight. So awareness of susceptibility towards obesity must be created among this age group to avoid this morbidity.