The effects of body mass index on balance, trunk muscle endurance, functional mobility and physical activity level in health sciences students

According to the World Health Organization, a body mass index over 25 kg/m2 is defined as obesity. Obesity is an energy metabolism disorder that occurs with excessive fat storage in the body and can cause physical and mental problems. Obesity is defined by the World Health Organization as an increase in the amount of fat in the body that may adversely affect human health. Obesity is associated with diseases involving various body systems such as metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, coronary heart disease, sleep apnea syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease, gallbladder and liver diseases, immune system dysfunction, polycystic ovary syndrome, skin diseases, psycho-social complications, osteoarthritis, disc herniation, chronic back and low back pain, and may lead to these diseases. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of body mass index on balance, trunk muscle endurance, functional mobility and physical activity level in health science students. A total of 73 university students, 53 female (72.6%) and 20 male (27.4%), studying at Bezmialem Vakif University Faculty of Health Sciences participated in the study. After recording the demographic information of the participants, they were divided into four groups as underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese according to their body mass index values. For balance evaluation postural stability, limits of stability and sensory integration of balance tests with Biodex Balance System device and for assess trunk extensor and flexor muscle endurance Biering-Sorensen test and Kraus-Weber test were applied to all students participating in the study, respectively. The functional mobility of all students participating in the study was evaluated with 5 times, 10 s, 30 s, 60 s sit-to-stand tests and their physical activity levels were evaluated with the International Physical Activity Questionnaire – Short Form (IPAQ-short form). IBM SPSS Statistics 26 program was used for statistical analysis. The level of significance was accepted as p<0.05 for all analyses. The normal distribution characteristics of the data groups belonging to all groups were examined with the Shapiro-Wilk test. The One Way Anova test was used to compare the normally distributed data, and the Tukey HSD test was used as a post hoc test to determine between which groups the difference was for the variables with a significant difference. The Kruskal Wallis test was used to compare the data that did not show normal distribution, and the Mann Whitney U test was used as pairwise comparisons for four groups in order to determine between which groups the variables with significant difference were. Bonferroni correction was applied for the p value in both Tukey HSD test and Mann Whitney U test, and the significance value was accepted as 0.0083 since there were 6 different pairwise comparisons. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of postural stability test, limits of stability tes and sensory integration of balance test (p>0.05) and there was no significant correlation between the body mass index values of all students and the results of postural stability test, limits of stability test and sensory integration of balance test (p>0.05). According to the results of trunk muscle endurance tests, it was found that both trunk extensor muscle endurance and trunk flexor muscle endurance were significantly lower in the obese group compared to the underweight and normal weight groups (p<0,001; p<0,001; p=0,002; p=0,003) and a moderately significant negative correlation was found between BMI values of all students and Biering-Sorensen test and Kraus-Weber test scores (r=-0.477 p<0.001; r=-0.487 p<0.001). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of the results of the 5 times sit-to-stand test and 10 s, 30 s, 60 s sit-to-stand tests (p>0.05) and there was no significant correlation between the body mass index values of all students and the results of the 5 times sit-to-stand test and 10 s, 30 s, 60 s sit-to-stand tests (p>0.05). There was no significant difference between the groups in the results of walking activity, moderate physical activity, vigorous physical activity and total score variables of IPAQ-short form (p>0.05). The results of the sitting (sedentary time) variable of the IPAQ-short form showed that the normal weight and obese groups spent more time as a sedentary than the underweight group (p=0.004; p=0.004). While there was no significant correlation between the BMI values of all students and the walking, moderate-intensity physical activity and total score variables of the IPAQ-short form (p>0.05), there was a weak positive correlation was found between the BMI values and the vigorous physical activity variable and moderately significant positive correlation was found between BMI values and sitting (sedentary time) variable (r=0,272 p=0,028; r=0,411 p=0,001). As a result of our study, it was shown that the obese group with a high BMI value in health science students had lower trunk extensor and trunk flexor muscle endurance test scores compared to the underweight and normal weight groups and there was a negative correlation between BMI values and trunk extensor and trunk flexor muscle endurance. It was shown that the obese and normal weight groups spent more time as a sedentary compared to the underweight group, and there was a positive correlation between BMI values and vigorous physical activity and sedentary time of the IPAQ-short form. It was shown that there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of balance, functional mobility and physical activity levels. It was shown that there was no significant correlation between BMI values and balance, functional mobility and walking activity, moderate physical activity and total score variables of IPAQ.