Prevalence of Obesity and Metabolic Derangement Among the Rural Population of Kiulu District of Sabah, Malaysia: A Health Screening Programme Findings Khairul Anwar Zarkasi *1 , Nur Zuliani Ramli 1 , Kistina Mohamed 1 , Praneetha Palasuberniam 1 , Urban John Arnold D’ Souza 1 1 Department of Biomedical Sciences and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia * Corresponding author’s email: khairul.anwar@ums.edu.my (Received: 23 October 2017; Accepted: 12 December 2017) ABSTRACT Malaysia has high prevalence of general and central obesity which can be signifed by measurements of BMI and waist circumference respectively. Both parameters are established risk factors and predictors for non-communicable diseases including diabetes and hypertension. A health screening programme was conducted in a rural district of Sabah, Malaysia where a total of 42 participants were examined for weight, height, BMI, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate and capillary blood glucose. Mean age of the participants was 52.4 ± 14.9 years old. General obesity based on BMI was 42.9% while central obesity based on waist circumference was 26.2%. Proportion for hypertension and hyperglycaemia were equal at 33.3%. BMI was strongly correlated to waist circumference (r = 0.873, p < 0.001). Moreover, both BMI and waist circumference were independently correlated with systolic blood pressure (r = 0.418, p = 0.006 and r = 0.383, p = 0.012 respectively). Finally, systolic blood pressure was directly correlated with weight of the participants (r = 0.350, p = 0.023). These fndings were found to be closely similar and comparable to currently available epidemiological data. Keywords: obesity, metabolic derangement, rural population, health screening INTRODUCTION Malaysia has higher prevalence of obesity than the world prevalence with approximately 1 in every 2 Malaysians (50%) are obese 1 . In 2016, WHO reported that the global prevalence of obesity was 13% in adults aged 18 years and older 2 . Obesity is strongly associated with various chronic non-communicable diseases including diabetes and hypertension that may lead to more severe complications such as heart diseases 3 – 5 . Sedentary lifestyle and lack of physical activities are major contributors for obesity 6, 7 . The National Health and Morbidity Survey in 2015 reported that although the overall self-reported physical activity were quite high in Malaysian population (66.5%), only 25.4% were HEPA active (HEPA: health-enhancing physical activity; highly active category) while the other 41.1% were only active minimally 8 . In contrast, other research have found that Malaysia was one of the least active countries in the world with more than 50% of men and women aged 15 years and older to be physically inactive 9 . In relation to that, sedentary lifestyle and prevalence of obesity were comparatively lower in rural residence than urban populations 10. This might indirectly affect the prevalence of non- communicable diseases and general health of rural communities as a whole. Indeed, previous studies have reported higher prevalence of hypertension in urban than rural population though they differ only slightly (10.1% versus 9.7%) 11 . Furthermore, the prevalence of hypertension was also high in urban men and women than among rural men and women (16.4%, 12.1%, 5.4% and 5.9% respectively) 12 . Meanwhile, urban population had two-fold larger proportion of diabetes mellitus than its rural counterpart measuring at 8.1% and 4.6% respectively 13 . Epidemiological studies have identifed higher BMI and waist circumference as risk factors and strong predictors of these chronic medical illnesses. Development of these diseases usually take years without external symptoms. Often times, Original Article