Background: Medical students represent a highly educated population under significant pressures. For mental and anxiety disorders in medical students, obesity is considered as a risk factor.
Objective: A cross-sectional study was conducted to find out the relationship of anxiety with obesity and gender among these students.
Materials and methods: After initial screening of 202 students (90 males and 102 females), their BMI and WHR were assessed. By using Zung self-rating anxiety scale and the association of body mass index (BMI) and waist hip ratio (WHR) with anxiety score was evaluated.
Result: Anxiety score was normal (79 females and 83 males), mild to moderate (21 females and 5 males), moderate to severe (2 females and 2 males). By using Student's unpaired t test, no significant difference of anxiety score among students with BMI> 23 kg/m2 and with BMI< 23 kg/m2 in both sexes has been found. Also, there was no significant difference of anxiety score among students with higher WHR (males > 0.88 and females > 0.81) and with lesser WHR (males
Key words: Anxiety, body mass index, waist hip ratio, Zung self-rating anxiety scale
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