Nighat Bilal, Nighat Akbar, Anum B Khan.
Obesity is a gateway to complications.
Ann Pak Inst Med Sci Jan ;1(4):230-3.

Background: Obesity, referred as the epidemic of today, is associated with several serious and life-threatening problems. In addition to physical symptoms it may also lead to mental distress. Diabetes Mellitus (DM), hypertension, gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) and osteoarthritis are amongst some of its known associations. Objectives: To study the pattern of associated problems with which obese and overweight patients present in the OPD. Design and Settings: It was an observational descriptive study performed in the obesity clinic set up in medical OPD of PIMS, from August 2004 to January 2005. Methods and Materials: A total of 100 consecutive overweight and obese patients were included in this study. The relevant data was collected on performas. BMI was calculated according to weight and height of the patient. All patients showing BMI >25 were taken as obese. The patients were subdivided into overweight {Group A}, obese {Group B} and grossly obese {Group C} depending on whether the BMI was 25 to 29, 30 to 35 and above 35, respectively. All the cases were studied for various associated problems, viz GERD, DM, hypertension, osteoarthritis, obstructive sleep apnoea, etc. The data collected was analysed using spss version 11. Results: Overweight and obesity were associated with GERD (28%), followed by diabetes (20%), hypertension (18%), osteoarthritis (17%), obstructive sleep apnoea (8%) and gallbladder and liver disease (8%). Majority of patients were in group B (55%), followed by group A (25%) and group C (20%), respectively. More women were obese and subsequently more complications were found in them. Conclusion: Overweight and obesity are central to the metabolic syndrome and are important risk factor for type 2 DM. Obese women are particularly susceptible to diabetes and hypertension.

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