Evaluation of Prevalence of Obesity and its Relationship with Physical Fitness Indices of Mashhad Offices Employees

Background & objectives: Today, accurate measurement of physical activity volume and assessment of physical fitness is necessary to promote community health. So, the purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of obesity and its relationship with physical fitness indices of Mashhad offices employees. Methods: A total of 3737 subjects aged 20 to 60 years (2559 men and 1178 women) were selected by convenient sampling and participated voluntarily in evaluating the status of anthropometric indices and physical fitness. Anthropometric indices and body composition measurements including height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR) and body fat percentage were collected from all participants. The participants were classified into 4 groups based on BMI: underweight (BMI<18/5), normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.9), overweight (BMI 25-29.9), and obese (BMI >30). Level of physical fitness was evaluated by cardiovascular endurance test, muscular endurance, strength, flexibility and balance. Pearson correlation test was used to examine the relationship between indicators and independent sample T test to compare the groups. Results: Based on the findings, the fat percentage in men was significantly lower than that of women (p=0.001). The highest BMI in men and women were 42.9% with BMI of 9.29-25 and 36.5% with BMI of 18.4-9.29, respectively. Also, there was a significant relationship between anthropometric indices and maximum oxygen consumption between males and females (p<0.05). In addition, there was a significant correlation between cardiovascular endurance (p=0.001), flexibility (p=0.037), reaction time (p=0.041) and static equilibrium (p=0.024) among men and women. Conclusion: The results showed that the higher percentages of fat and BMI were related to the lower level of physical fitness. So, the promotion of peoples’ awareness about abdominal obesity and its associated factors and their encouragement to perform physical activity can be effective in reducing the prevalence of abdominal obesity and its comorbidities.