Body Composition and Physical Activity among ...

The Canadian Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 2, Issue 2, June 2014 ISSN 1927-8942 (Print Edition), ISSN 1927-8950 (Online Edition)

Page 41-49

Body Composition and Physical Activity among Omani Adults: A Population-Based Study Hashim Kilani1*, Mahfoodha S. Al-Kitani2, Manar Shaheen2 1

Health and Recreation Department, University of Jordan, Jordan Physical Education Department, College of Education, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

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*Corresponding Author: Professor Hashem Kilani. Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT Background: In the last century, huge advances were made in the understanding of physical activity (PA), sedentary life style, and physical fitness (PF). The present study aimed to address the role PA and PF in relation to health and wellbeing among Omani adult's population. Subjects: The survey used complex, multi-stage, stratified, clustered samples of healthy Omani adults (n=100), non-institutionalized populations, to collect information about the anthropometric and physical activity. All study participants provided written informed consent. Results: It was observed that the age and PA are not significantly difference between males and females study subjects. Occupation, body mass index (BMI), and resting basal metabolic rate (RBMR) were significantly difference between male and females. The enrolled female subjects had higher BMI, and there was a negative relationship between male and female study subjects in BMI, percent body fat, and waist to hip ratio. Conclusion: Increasing PA will result in increasing the level of PF and thus reducing fatness. Body composition is the relative amount of fat, muscle, bone, and other vital parts of the body, a component that represents health in the PF and is increased with low PA. Key words: Obesity, Body Composition, Physical Activity. Kilani H, Al-Kitani MS, Shaheen M. Body composition and physical activity among Omani adults: a population-based study. Canad J Clin Nutr 2014; 2 (2): 41-49 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14206/canad.j.clin.nutr.2014.02.04

INTRODUCTION In the last century, huge advances were made in the understanding of Physical activity (PA), sedentary life style, daily physical activity, physical fitness (PF), health related

man’s existence. Throughout prehistoric time, man's mission for fitness has been driven by a desire to survive through hunting and collecting his physiological needs. In the Canad J Clin Nutr is published by Global Science Heritage, (http://www.globalscienceheritage.org), a registered publisher by the Library and Archives/Government of Canada, (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca)

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accomplishments to be eminent is the continuous pursuit of fitness since the beginning of

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fitness and dietary intake. As we are in the new millennium, one of the best


present, this pursuit of fitness has a vital role to health and well-being. Different scientist has defined PF in various vocabularies but achieved similar meaning because it has a set of components, attributes, or and characteristics that people have or achieve related to the ability to perform PA. Caspersen, Powell & Christensen, (1) were the first to distinguish terminology by defining PA as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure, and is positively correlated with physical fitness, e.g. jogging, walking, cycling, and swimming. Individuals usually develop excess energy stores when there is an imbalance between dietary (energy) intake and energy expenditure but the sources of this imbalance are not fully determined. Energy is the entity that enables our bodies to perform work. Twenty-four-hour energy expenditure (24h EE) has three major components – resting metabolic rate (RMR), thermal effect of exercise and thermal effect of food (TEF). The RMR can be considered as the metabolic cost of maintaining the integrated systems of the body at rest and accounts for 60–80% of 24hEE. There are inter-individual variations in RMR, which are to some extent determined by genetic factors. Further, the minimal amount of energy required for life is called basal metabolic rate (BMR) while RMR meets energy demands during at rest. For example, athletes who train 3 to 4 hours a day may increase the energetic expenditure in almost 100%, while excess dietary intake with undo PA leads to gain weight and fatness (2, 3). However, health related fitness is the ability of the body to perform the efficient work maintaining healthy cardiovascular, muscular, and body composition while physical fitness is a measure of the body’s ability to function efficiently and effectively in performing sports’ skills. A comprehensive fitness program tailored to an individual typically focuses on one or more specific skills, (4) and on age (5) or health-related needs such as bone health (6). Although, components of Health related fitness are a basis from which to measure our

each of these areas. In addition, different sports will be more demanding in some, and

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less demanding in others, but athletes usually strive to achieve a reasonable level of

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general fitness level and wellbeing, it is the aim of PA to improve our competencies in

Canad J Clin Nutr is published by Global Science Heritage, (http://www.globalscienceheritage.org), a registered publisher by the Library and Archives/Government of Canada, (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca)


physical fitness in each area. There are five health related components of fitness. These are Cardiovascular Endurance (CE), Muscular Strength (MS), Flexibility (F), Muscular Endurance (ME), and Body Composition (BC). In health related fitness, BC is the component deals to optimize fatness through fitness level and nutrition selection. Being physically active is one of the best ways to keep your heart and lungs healthy. Therefore, the present study was conducted to address the role PA and PF in relation to health and wellbeing among Omani adult's population. METHODS Study subjects and setting: This population based survey was conducted in Muscat city, Sultanate of Oman, from December 2012 through March 2013. The survey used complex, multi-stage, stratified, clustered samples of healthy Omani adults (n=100), noninstitutionalized populations, to collect information about the anthropometric and physical activity. All study participants provided written informed consent. Exclusion criteria included chronic diseases, endocrine disorders and pregnancy. Anthropometric assessment: The measurements were collected using InBody-720 Body Composition Analyzer. Weight and height were determined according to standardized procedures; weight was recorded to the nearest 0.1 kg, while height was recorded to the nearest 0.1 cm. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as weight (kg) divided by height squared (m2). Physical activity estimation: We used the responses to survey queries that questioned the physical activity performance of routine exercise over the past 12 months. In brief, subjects were asked to identify specified exercises in which they participated during their free time (jogging or running; riding a bicycle or exercise bicycle; swimming; aerobic dancing; other dancing; floor exercises; gardening or yard work; and weight lifting). They were inquired to specify the number of times they participated in an identified activity during the past month. Responses were standardized as ‘times per week’. The

Resting Basal Metabolic Rate (RBMR) is estimated with the Mifflin - St Jeor equation:


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activity) per month.

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physical activity was specified as the sum of intensity rating multiplied by times (of each


RBMR = 10 * weight (kg) + 6.25 * height (cm) - 5 * age(y) + 5

(man)

RBMR = 10 * weight (kg) + 6.25 * height (cm) - 5 * age(y) - 161

(woman)

Statistical analysis: Descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviations (SD), ranges, and percentages, were used to characterize the study subjects. GraphPad Prism version 5.0 Software was used to compute comparisons among groups using unpaired ttest and one Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for the continuous variables. Chisquared (χ2) test for the categorical variables and correlation coefficients (r) were performed to determine its association with physical activity, P ≤ 0.05 was considered to be significantly different. RESULTS In the current study, the descriptive characteristics statistics mean, standard deviation, percentages, and significance values for the 100 participants (50 males and 50 females) are presented in Table 1. It was observed that the age and PA are not significantly difference between males and females study subjects. Occupation, BMI, and RBMR were significantly difference between male and females. It appears that women have higher BMI (32.2 ± 2.4 versus 28.6 ± 1.7) with lower RBMR (1452.5± 67.3 versus 1771.1± 37.4) and less working percentages (60% versus 90%). Although men scored better in the above mentioned characteristics both have high BMI with low RBMR which corresponds their inactivity percent measure (Table 1). The data in table 2 displays correlation coefficients of the relevant variables. The table shows particularly negative relationship between male and females in BMI, percent body fat (PBF %) and waist to hip ratio. DISCUSSION Nevertheless, PA and PF have interplay a significant role in prevention of overweight and

recommending the amount of PA needed to reduce the risk of overweight and obesity

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were first established for children and youth by the American College of Sport Medicine

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obesity in adolescents, young adults, and elderly people (7-10). Guidelines



in 1988 recommending that children and adolescents should achieve 20–30 min of vigorous exercise every day. The American College of Sports Medicine modified their proposals on guidelines for adults and recommending that young adults should engage in moderate intensity aerobic exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes at least 5 days a week preferably every day including 2 days of strength training to reach the optimum functional capacity and health (11, 12). Similarly, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that one should take at least 10,000 walking step counts per day for health promotion (13). However, personal factors such as age, sex, health, motivation, anthropometric & goals together with genetic and environmental factors all can influence the level of physical activity (14, 15). In youth, low PF is associated with unfavorable chronic disease risk factor profiles, beside in its association with depression and deficiency in vitamin D for Omanis’ adolescents (9, 16). It has been demonstrated that PF in youth is correlated with PA level and body fatness, a positive correlation with PA level and a negative correlation with body fatness. Also, negative correlations existed in Omani adolescents between fatness and vitamin D deficit with low strength attribute (6).

It is known that low PF in

adolescence tends to track into adulthood. Hence, low PF during adolescence is a threat to both immediate and long-term health of young people (17). In addition, obesity in childhood is known to be an independent risk factor for adult obesity. A cross-sectional study of body composition, physical performance, and functional limitation in elder people found that higher fat mass was associated with slower walking speed and greater likelihood of functional limitation. The study demonstrated that a higher lean-to-fat ratio was associated with better performance and less likelihood of reported limitation suggesting that absolute amount of fat mass negatively impacts physical performance and functioning in elderly population (15). The modern life routine had introduced several alterations to the Omani community

resultant inactive sedentary lifestyle had serious impacts on the health of the society

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demonstrated clearly as alterations of the body composition and emerging of chronic

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lifestyle. These alterations of the lifestyle resulted in less chances of regular PA. The



diseases. The sedentary lifestyle in the Omani society has been associated with an increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) (6, 9). The crude prevalence of overweight and obesity (body mass index >25 kg/m2) among Omani adults was estimated to be 47.9% and the crude prevalence of central obesity was 49.3% (18). Both obesity and central obesity increased the odds of having diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesteremia (18). A study conducted to examine the relationship between selected PF performance capacities and the degree of body fat percentage in overweight and normal weight sedentary young male adults aged 19 to 24 years used several physical performance tests including cardio respiratory fitness, sit ups, pull ups, standing broad jump and shuttle run. The results of the study indicated that all the selected physical fitness components had a significant negative correlation with body fat percentage except shuttle run performance (19). Similarly a cross-sectional study associating body fat scores (BFS) with weekly exercising hours and physical activity scores (PAS) of 202 Omani students (101 males and 101 females) aged 20-39 years demonstrated that high and very high BFS were prevalent among subjects with sedentary lifestyles and authors suggested nutritional and physical activity intervention (7,9). The tally of PA and PF has a linear relationship that inversely associated with fatness, the clustering of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors (20). CONCLUSION In conclusion, Increasing PA will result in increasing the level of PF and thus reducing fatness. Body composition is the relative amount of fat, muscle, bone, and other vital parts of the body, a component that represents health in the PF and is increased with low PA. A question of interest prioritizes the theme of this study: can excess body fat lead to obesity and increases the RF of getting CVD? Therefore, the purpose of this study was to

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Omani adults.

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assess the relationship of PA, BC and dietary intake in clustered samples of healthy



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Table 1: The socio-demographic characteristics of the clustered Omani samples enrolled in the study Characteristics Males (n=50) Females (n=50) P value >0.05 Mean age (years) 36.8 ± 6.6 37.1 ± 7.1 2 0.05 Exercise) 30% 20% - Inactive - Active Occupation 90% 60%