Body composition analysis and estimation of physical fitness by scoring grades in Saudi adults

Objective: To determine the prevalence of different categories of body composition in healthy Saudi adults and its relationship with fitness scoring. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on 428 healthy adult Saudi subjects over 18 years of age conducted at the department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Saudia Arabia from April 2010 to September 2011. All participants underwent body composition analysis assessed by bioelectrical impendence analysis. Measurements included body weight, body mass index, protein mass, fat mass, percent body fat, and fitness scoring based on the target values. SPSS 10 was used for statistical analysis. Results: The mean age of the participants was 36.90±15.22 years, ranging from 18 to 72 years. There were 318(74.3%) males and 110(25.7%) females. The mean body mass index and fitness scores were 27.22±5.65 and 69.3±8.48 respectively. The per cent prevalence of underweight, normal weight, overweight, obesity class I, obesity class II and obesity class III was 2.91 (n=13), 33.81 (n=139), 35.27 (n=145), 19.46 (n=80), 6.32 (n=26) and 2.18 (n=9) respectively. Of the total, 57 (13.4%) individuals had poor fitness, while 123(28.7%) had fair fitness scores. Good fitness score was seen in 218 (50.9%). Only 33(7.8%) subjects had normal body fats and 46(10.7%) showed lesser body fats than required. While the percentage of subjects with extra body fats ranging from 2kg, 2 -4.9, 5.0-9.9, 10.0-14.9,15-19.9 and ≥20kg was 12.1(n=52), 19.4(n=83), 15.6(n=67), 15.2(n=65), 9.0(n=38) and 10.3(n=44) respectively. Significant gender differences were observed in body mass index, fitness score, per cent body fat and other parametres of body composition. Conclusions: The prevalence of obesity, per cent body fat and poor fitness was high in the study population with significant gender differences. Public awareness programmes, including exercise and diet teaching, are required at mass scale to cope up with the growing burden of obesity.