ABSTRACT:
Body mass index (BMI) is a significant marker in assessing the health risk factors of an individual. Although, the discovery of BMI is over 200 years, however, its application as a measure of health is fairly new. Hitherto, the prevalence of higher BMI amongst university students is on the rise. Consequently, the present study endeavor to investigate the association of BMI and other health-related parameters namely; per cent body fat, visceral fat, basal metabolic rate (BMR), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, resting heart rate, core and upper muscle endurance, maximum oxygen consumption (V02max) and metabolic equivalent (MET). A total number of 232 university students were enrolled and completed the physical fitness assessments and health indicator measurement of the variables. A multiple Linear Regression (MLR) was used to observe the association of the BMI as the dependent variable with the physical fitness as well as health parameters as independent variables. A significant regression model was obtained F (3.225, 5) = 301.104, P <0.0001, R2 = 0.869 demonstrating that the model has accounted for about 87% variability of the whole dataset. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that per cent body fat, visceral fat, BMR, as well as VO2max, are the major contributors towards the model prediction P <0.001. Moreover, positive significant relationships were detected between the BMI, per cent body fat, visceral fat, BMR, systolic and diastolic blood pressure whilst negative association between the BMI and performance in upper muscle endurance and VO2max were noted. BMI index could be a potential marker of assessing university students’ health-related risks that would consequently reveal vital information about their overall health status.