Association Between Anthropometric Measurements and Dietary Habits in a Young Adult Female Population in Selected Areas in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka

Abstract

AttachedObesity and abdominal obesity are becom ing major public health problem in certain countries. Causes for obesity are m ulti-factorial; among them various dietary factors play an important role. The main cause o f obesity-related deaths is cardiovascular disease, for which abdominal obesity is a predisposing factor [1]. Abdominal obesity is defined as W aist to Hip Ratio (W HR) above 0.90 for m ales and above 0.85 for fem ales [2], B ody M ass Index (BM I) is a parameter that is useful in assessing obesity, overweight and malnutrition. The study aim ed to assess the association between anthropometric m easurements and the dietary habits in a fem ale population o f tw o study areas. A cross-sectional study w as conducted separately at Hungama and Hiththatiya-M iddle areas within Hambantota and Matara districts o f Southern province o f Sri Lanka. 304 healthy fem ales between 20-50 years o f age were selected by system atic random sampling m ethod. For the calculation o f BMI and WHR, height and w eight, W aist Circumference (W C) and Hip Circumference (HC) o f each individual w ere measured. The World Health Organization cut-off points were used to categorize BMI and WHR. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to assess dietary habits. There is a statistically significant difference between the WHR and consumption o f potato (p= 0.002) in Hungama as w ell as significant difference can be seen betw een W HR and consum ption o f red raw rice (p= 0.022) and w hite raw rice (p= 0.020) in Hiththatiya m iddle. Present study show s statistically positive relationship between the BM I and consum ption o f potato (p= 0.002) yogurt (p= 0.046) and fried food (p=0.033) in the total study population. Prevalence o f obesity (6.6% ) and abdominal obesity (47% ) in w hole population are higher with compared with other sim ilar studies