Assessment of Body Mass Index (BMI) among members of staff of Kenya Medical Training College Nakuru

Abstract

Background: The harmful effects of overweight and underweight have widely been underestimated worldwide. Body Mass Index (BMI) is a useful indicator to measure if one is underweight, overweight or obese. Setting: The research was conducted at KMTC Nakuru. All members of staff in the college were included in the study. The departments included in the study were Clinical Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Laboratory Science, Environmental Science and physiotherapy. A total of eighty-nine (89) members of staff were studied: Fifteen (15) teaching staff and seventy-four (74) non-teaching staff. Objectives: To determine the BMI of staff members at KMTC Nakuru. Design: The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design. Justification: In Kenya and Africa in general, there is current updated data on the prevalence of overweight and obesity. This is particularly so since priority has always been on under-nutrition (Mendez et al., 2005). There has been immense focus primarily on under-nutrition and food insecurity in most African countries since these are more prevalent. As a result, trends in overweight and obesity have often been overlooked in most countries. Data analysis: Scientific calculator was used to generating graphs and tables for data analysis.  Findings: Teaching staff: From the results, 13% of the teaching staff had normal BMI, 60% were overweight and 27% had class I obesity. Non-teaching staff: From the results, 3% were underweight, 39% had normal BMI, 31% were overweight, 19% had class I obesity, 5% had class II obesity and 3% had class III obesity. Conclusion: 60% of the teaching staff was overweight and 27% of the teaching staff was obese while 31% of the non-teaching staff was overweight and 27% were obese.