Comparative investigation of body mass index of tertiary students of the South Pacific origin

Abstract

The body mass index (BMI) trends in the South Pacific Island Countries (PICs) have been analysed. Five South Pacific countries, namely; Fiji, Tonga, Nauru, Kiribati and Solomon Islands have been analysed based on the population that have stayed in Fiji at some point (mean age 25.20±5.27). Standard BMI threshold defined as underweight (<18.5 kg/m²), normal weight (18.5–24.9 kg/m²) overweight (25–30 kg/m²) and obese (≥30 kg/m²) was used to study the BMI trends. The data collection was carried out by randomly selecting the subject of study and manually recording their heights (in meters) and weight (in kg). These measurements were done during the period of 2014–2015. The data showed that only Fiji had an average BMI with normal weight of 23.74±4.63 kg/m² while other countries’ population were either overweight (Solomon Islands) or obese (Nauru) in the range of 25.29±4.37 kg/m² to 37.24±12 kg/m². Cohen’s d and eta square test were performed to see differences in height and weight where large differences were found primarily in the male population compared to female. The average BMI for gender within a country did not show variation (p>0.001) but variation was seen among the PICs (p<0.001) as significant difference.