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Prevalence of Obesity among Adult Surgical Patients in Tobago

Journal Authors: 
DOI: 
10.7727/wimj.2018.050
Pages: 
ABSTRACT
 
Objective: To estimate the prevalence of obesity among adult surgical patients in Tobago.
 
Methods: Patients aged 18 and over who had surgery at the Scarborough General Hospital were studied. Demographic data of age, gender, weight and height were collected from the anaesthesia records. Obesity was assessed using body mass index (BMI) calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in metres (kg/m2). The World Health Organization (WHO) classification was used with obesity defined as BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2, overweight as BMI ≥ 25–29.9 and normal weight as BMI ≥ 18.5–24.9.
 
Results: Data from 799 patients (214 [26.8%] male, 585[73.2%] female) were analysed. They had a mean age ± SD of 44.5 ± 15 years, median age of 42 year and a range of 18‒97 year. Their mean BMI ± SD was 30.6 ± 8.15 (male 27.6 ± 7; female 31.7 ± 8.3). Two percent were underweight, 21% were normal weight, 32% were overweight and 45% were obese. A greater proportion of females were in the higher BMI categories compared with males. More than half of the females were obese (52%) compared to just over a third of the males (26%).
 
Conclusion: Overweight and obesity are common among adult surgical patients in Tobago and the prevalence is higher in females.
Accepted: 
30 May, 2018
PDF Attachment: 
e-Published: 26 Feb, 2019

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