The level of obesity and its relationship to the level of visceral fat in Palestine

Abstract

Obesity is a complex disease involving an excessive amount of body fat that increases the risk of other diseases and health problems, such as heart disease, type two diabetes, and high blood pressure.(Mayo Clinic,2021)This study aimed to study the relationship between the level of body mass index (BMI) and its relationship to the level of visceral fat for age group 40-79 years in Palestine, and to identify the effect of age and gender variables on the levels of (BMI) and visceral fat, also to identify the level of visceral fat and fat percentage for the same age group. Method and Procedures: this study was conducted on a sample of (242) participants, aged between (40-70 years) who were randomly selected, the measurements were made on a body composition analysis scale, and the processing was conducted using statistical packages (SPSS 25). Results: The results showed that the obesity (BMI) level among the study sample was (52.1%), the 'high' level of fat percentage reached 19.5%, and the 'very high' level was 57.3%. while the 'high' level of visceral fat reached 42.1% and the 'very high' level was 17.4%. The results showed that there is a correlation between the level of (BMI) and visceral fat at the level of confidence (95%), as the level of significance of the test is less than (0.05), also showed no statistically significant differences in the level of BMI according to the variables of gender and age, but showed a statistically significant relationship between the level of visceral fat and each of gender and age. Recommendations: the authors recommend using BMI to detect levels of obesity, especially for studies with large samples.