Lifestyle factors associated with obesity among male university students in the United Arab Emirates

A cross‐sectional survey of 300 male university students (18‐25 years) in the United Arab Emirates was carried out to study the relationship between obesity and some lifestyle factors. Obesity was determined using body mass index (weight/height²), with cut‐off of <25 and ≥25, to represent non‐obese and obese students, respectively. The overall prevalence of obesity was 35.7 per cent, which was higher than their counterpart female students. The risk of obesity was found to be greater among those who had a family history of obesity (relative risk, RR=1.88), watched television for more than four hours a day (RR=1.31), were smokers (RR=1.35), were not practising sport (RR=1.77) and had a car (RR=1.23). However, only family history of obesity was found to be statistically significant. The study suggests that social and lifestyle factors are important factors for the occurrence of obesity among male university students.