Obesity is one of the most common, yet among the most neglected, public health problems around the world and it is strongly associated with various non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus and coronary artery diseases. Health care personal especially nurses play an important role in educating public to have healthy lifestyle. However, there is an alarming rate of increase in number of obesity among nursing students as well as staff nurses. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the anthropometric measurements and its associated risks among post-basic renal care nursing students. Total of 142 post-basic renal care nursing students of five intakes were included in this cross-sectional study. The result of the study showed that 52% of participants were either overweight or obese although most of them were below 40 years of age. Majority of overweight or obese students were Malays and 78% of them being female. We also observed an association of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and waist circumference (WC)with increasing body mass index (BMI) (P= 0.001, P= 0.001 and P<0.001) which were statistically significant. Wald criterion estimated that WC and DBP were the most important predictors of BMI in present study. Our study concluded that obesity is prevalent among post-basic renal care nursing students. Urgent and appropriate action should be taken to deter the growing problem of obesity among nursing students and to avoid its subsequent complications in Malaysia.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is becoming major health threat worldwide and it is extremely common in clinical setting. Malaysia is one of the highest diabetic populations among Asian countries and the new cases are increasing day to day. Early detection of people with high risk of Type 2 DM by using simple, easy and cost-effective assessment tool is the better way to identify and prevent the community from this non-communicable disease. The objectives of the study were to identify those are high risk to become type 2DM among Malaysians by using risk scoring form and to educate them how to prevent it. Total 591 subjects were recruited from the health screening programs carried out by the collaboration of Petaling Jaya Development Council (MBPJ) and Lincoln University College, Malaysia. Modified form of Finnish Type 2 Diabetes Risk Assessment Tool was used to identify people at risk of becoming type 2 DM. Descriptive analysis was performed for all included variables in this study by using SPSS version 21. The study found out that almost half of the participants were found to have family history of DM, 60% of them were overweight and obese and 47% were having above normal waist circumference. We observed that nearly 60 % of participants in the study were having moderate to high risk of becoming type 2 DM in next 10 years. To conclude, the result of our study would be helpful in implementation of cost-effective, convenient Type 2 DM risk assessment tool which has yet to be implemented in Malaysia.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus ; assessment tool ; health screening ; prevention