Association Between Anthropometric Measurements and Dietary Habits in a Young Adult Female Population in Selected Areas in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka

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Obesity and abdominal obesity are becom ing major public health problem in certain countries. Causes for obesity are m ulti-factorial; among them various dietary factors play an important role. The main cause o f obesity-related deaths is cardiovascular disease, for which abdominal obesity is a predisposing factor [1]. Abdominal obesity is defined as W aist to Hip Ratio (W HR) above 0.90 for m ales and above 0.85 for fem ales [2], B ody M ass Index (BM I) is a parameter that is useful in assessing obesity, overweight and malnutrition. The study aim ed to assess the association between anthropometric m easurements and the dietary habits in a fem ale population o f tw o study areas. A cross-sectional study w as conducted separately at Hungama and Hiththatiya-M iddle areas within Hambantota and Matara districts o f Southern province o f Sri Lanka. 304 healthy fem ales between 20-50 years o f age were selected by system atic random sampling m ethod. For the calculation o f BMI and WHR, height and w eight, W aist Circumference (W C) and Hip Circumference (HC) o f each individual w ere measured. The World Health Organization cut-off points were used to categorize BMI and WHR. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to assess dietary habits. There is a statistically significant difference between the WHR and consumption o f potato (p= 0.002) in Hungama as w ell as significant difference can be seen betw een W HR and consum ption o f red raw rice (p= 0.022) and w hite raw rice (p= 0.020) in Hiththatiya m iddle. Present study show s statistically positive relationship between the BM I and consum ption o f potato (p= 0.002) yogurt (p= 0.046) and fried food (p=0.033) in the total study population. Prevalence o f obesity (6.6% ) and abdominal obesity (47% ) in w hole population are higher with compared with other sim ilar studies [3].