The relation between overweight and obesity with the use of weight loss products in university professors of puebla, mexico

Background. Current tendencies in obesity and overweight in México shows a significant increase in the last National Nutrition and Health Surveys, which is reflected in the rise of chronic non-transmissible diseases and an increase of antiobesity drugs. Objective. Find the relationship between the consumption of anti-obesity drugs, overweight and obesity in teachers at a private university of Puebla city, in Mexico. Materials and methods. This is a non-experimental, cross-sectional descriptive design, where a simple random probability sampling was used. 100 professional workers at a private university of Puebla city participated, 27 men and 73 women. It was applied a test to each one of them, in order to identify their habits and consume of anti-obesity drugs. Anatomical models were presented to the participants to determinate their self-perception of body image. Finally anthropometric measures were done and body mass index was calculated. Results. 45% of participants presented overweight and obesity; 38% consume anti-obesity drugs, of these, 84.2% are women. It was observed that higher body mass index (BMI) gives a higher consume of anti-obesity drugs (p<0.05). It was determined an inversed relationship between a higher obesity degree and a lower number of meals a day, correlated also with a lower number of exercise hours. Finally people with a healthy BMI, have adequate self-perception of body image and the majority of people with overweight, perceived themselves with a higher BMI. Conclusions. The consumption of anti-obesity drugs is related to the increase of overweight and obesity in professional workers.