ABSTRACT

Background: Depression is a growing health issue among the young, college-going demographic the world over.

Aim: To explore the impact of Body Mass Index (BMI) on the psychological well-being of medical students in private medical college, with particular focus on the influence of BMI on depression.

Methodology: This cross sectional study with enrolled students (n=233) was carried out after ethical research committee’s (ERC) approval at CMH Kharian Medical College (CKMC), Physiology Department, Kharian-Pakistan. Both male and female medical students were enrolled. Level of stress, anxiety and depression among them were noted after filling DASS questionnaire Performa. BMI was calculated of enrolled students and its relation with stress, anxiety and depression were observed. Data was analyzed by SPSS software, version 21. Spearman’s Rho test was used to determine the association between depression, anxiety and stress with BMI as p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: All the enrolled students showed that BMI was not normally distributed among them. Female students were 63.52% whereas males were 36.48% were enrolled. Significant correlation was seen between BMI and depression with p-value of <0.035.

Conclusion: We concluded that depression was positively linked with body mass index among medical students whereas it has no significant association with stress and anxiety.

Keywords: Medical students, Stress and DASS system.