IMC Journal of Medical Science
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Ibrahim Medical College Journal of Medical ScienceMd. Anisur RahmanMonira Akhter MoniKamal AhmedMd. Shafiqul IslamMd. Abidul Haque https://www.imcjms.com/registration/journal_full_text/192
2017-04-20 09:58:33Original ArticleIbrahim Med. Coll. J. 2010; 4(2): 59-62
102,
Female >88
Health
Risk WHR
Health
Risk Male ³ 1.01, Female ³ 0.86
Results
On
average, females were having significantly lower height, weight, WC whereas no
significant difference was noticed in hip circumference and body mass index
between the sexes. Anthropometric values by gender are shown in Table 2 and
Table 3. Only about 3% of the elderly samples were obese. One-fifth of the males
and one-fourth of the females were underweight whereas overweight and obese
were about 14% and 17%, respectively. But the observed differences were not
statistically significant. Higher proportion of females (10.6% and 35.6%,
respectively) were with health risk WC (p<0.01) and WHR (<0.001) compared
to males (0.8% and 7.0%, respectively).
Table 2: Anthropometric indicators of the senior
citizens by sex (n = 317)
Discussion
In most
studies, mentioned below, BMI was found higher in females than males. Other
indices found having different findings in different studies. In a study on
Filipino adults including approximately 8,500 subjects (20-65 years old), BMI,
WC and WHR were found higher for the males than females.10 In population-based,
cross-sectional studies in Chile and Cuba on the elderly, BMI values were
significantly higher in women than in men.11,12 In another study in Brazil
among the elderly, a total of 1,894 older adults (men and women > 60 years)
were examined from January to March 2001. Body mass index (BMI), waist (WC) and
hip (HC) circumferences were measured. BMI was significantly higher (p <
0.01) in women than men (all age groups).13 In a cross sectional study on 60-year-old-and
older Mexican men and women in Mexico City, the values in the male group were
higher than in the female group for WC; women showed higher values in BMI, and
hip circumference (p < 0.01).14 In a Mexican national survey, BMI values
indicated that 62.3% of the population and 73.6% of the women were overweight.15 In a cross-sectional study
on randomly selected 3,356 elderly Italian population, BMI was significantly
higher in women than in men (27.6 ± 5.7 v. 26.4 ± 3.7; P<0.001). Prevalence
of malnutrition was lower than 5% in both genders, whereas obesity was shown to
have a higher prevalence in women than in men (28% v. 16%; P<0.001).16 In another cross-sectional
study of 874 free-living, apparently healthy Irish-born elderly individuals
aged over 65 years, one-third had a BMI between 20-25 kg/m2, approximately two-thirds (68.5% of males and 61% of females) were
classified as overweight or obese, almost one-fifth having a BMI over 30 kg/m2 (17% of men and 20% of women).
Very few were underweight, only 3% having a BMI below 20 kg/m2.17 An
institution based study on 305 elderly people, of both sexes, living in six
geriatric institutions were assessed. Mean values of the weight, height, body
mass index in men were higher than those in women. Of the mean difference of
the variables, body mass index was not statistically significant (p>0.05).18
In this
study, majority of elderly were found well nourished and had no health risk by
anthropometric measurements. Females were at a higher health risk compared to
males. As the study was conducted only in some selected areas of Dhaka city
with a small sample size, the study findings may not represent the actual
national situation. Further large scale in-depth studies with appropriate
design are recommended to get a detailed national picture.
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