Abstract:
The rapid social and economic transition of Nepal has resulted in the issue of double
burden of malnutrition. Individual with lower weight are at risk various disease and
disorder but the individuals with excess weight are also at the risk for a variety of disabling
and life-threatening chronic conditions, including high blood pressure, menstrual
abnormalities, psychosocial dysfunction etc. Thus, a cross-sectional descriptive study was
done on 159 adults aged 18-59 years using a structured questionnaire and weight, height,
waist circumference and hip circumference were measured to calculate BMI and analyzed
using WHO classification. This study determined the pattern and prevalence of
underweight, overweight and obesity along with central obesity among the people of
Dharan. Microsoft excels and SPSS version 20 was used to analyze data. Chi square test
was used to analyze the association between BMI and all the potential risk factors.
It was found that 5.4% were underweight, 44.7% were normal weight, 33.3% were
overweight and 16.4% were obese. This study also found that blood pressure (p= 0.048),
age (p=0.03), diabetes (p=0.05), type of diet (p=0.05) were significantly associated with
the nutritional status of people residing in Dharan sub-metropolitan city. Type of diet
(p=0.05), occupation(p=0.05) and blood pressure(p=0.04) were found to have a relation
with abdominal obesity due to waist circumference while consumption of junk
food(p=0.05) was found to be associated with abdominal obesity (WHR).To address both
underweight and overweight, policymakers must simultaneously focus on encouraging
positive behavior through education and addressing society-level risk factors that prevent
people from achieving optimal health.
Description:
A dissertation submitted to the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Central Campus
of Technology, Tribhuvan University, in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of B.Sc. Nutrition and Dietetics.
