Prevalence of Dieting and associated Health effect among Hostel Girls of Muhammad Medical College

Background: The high prevalence of obesity in modern societies is a major public health problem and is risingday by day. Obesity imposed some chronic diseases with feeling of low Self - esteem and negative body image.Prevalence of obesity is high among all age groups but it is two to three times higher among 20 years age group.Negative body image initiates young adults on dieting and unhealthy eating behaviors to lose weight. Thus dieting is becoming a common phenomenon among university students to achieve their desirable body weight. Toassess the prevalence of dieting and associated effect current study was carried out among the medical students.Methodology: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among hostel girls of Muhammad Medical College in June-August 2014. 108 girls filled a questionnaire and data was entered and analyzed by SPSS version16.Results: 41% were dieting. The most frequent reason for dieting was to reduce weight to get smartness as reported by n=29(64%). Different health related issues were reported n=36(80%) feel weakness, n=12(26.6%) feeldizziness, n=29(66.4%)from constipation &n= 11(24.4%) suffered from diarrhea, n=11(24.4%)have disturbedmenstrual cycle& n= 28(62.2%) have irritative behavior due to dieting, n=29(66.4%) felt backache, n=34(75.5%)felt headache, n=37(82.2%) have mental problems, n=4(8.88%) felt lack of concentration during lectures due todieting.Conclusion: Our study reported high number of hostel girls were dieting with multiple health hazards.Key Words: Dieting, Weakness, Female Medical students.