A Pilot Study on Pre-diabetes and Associated Central Obesity among Students of University of Guyana, Guyana

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the incidence of pre-diabetes and associated central obesity among sampled University of Guyana students.

Methods: The study was a cross sectional study where a questionnaire was distributed to each participant to assess predisposing risk factors. Anthropometric measurements like BMI and HbA1c were used to ascertain if the participant was overweight or obese. Nycocard® HbA1c test kit was used for collecting HbA1c. Data was analyzed using SPSS 20.0 to calculate descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were used to investigate the research questions. A p value of <0.05 was considered to be significant for all analysis.

Results: A total of seventy-four students were randomly selected for the study. The findings of this study revealed pre-diabetes incidence of 40.5% and a weak positive correlation between central obesity and pre-diabetes, with r-values of 0.25 (males), 0.27 (females) & 0.26 (overall).

Conclusion: There was a weak association between central obesity and pre-diabetes incidence. Therefore, a large follow up study would be important to understand association between pre-diabetes and central obesity and to create nationwide awareness or development of an operational policy/strategy/action plan to reduce overweight.