p38: spinal cord injury and body mass index

obesity is one of the most prevalent diet-related problems and increases the risk for diabetes mellitus, hypertension, atherosclerosis and dyslipidemia. cardio vascular disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in spinal cord injury (sci) patients. increased fat mass has also been identified as an important risk factor in chronic sci and weight management is recommended as a key cardio vascular disease prevention strategy. the aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in persons with spinal cord injury. an observational analytic cross sectional study on 850 files of sci patients registered in the current database in khatam alanbia hospital from 2008 to 2013 was undertaken. data collected for each patient included age, sex, height, weight, duration of spinal cord injury and the level of spinal cord injury. the body mass index (bmi) was subsequently calculated for each patient and the prevalence of overweight and obesity were determined. 833 patients were male and 17 were female. in all, 50.2% of patients had a normal bmi and 7.6% of patients were undernourished. the prevalence of overweight and obesity were 32.1 % and 10 % of patients, respectively. prevalence of overweight and obesity are high in persons with spinal cord injury and there is a significant positive correlation between bmi and age.