Prevalence and correlates of obesity among chronic psychiatric patients.

[[abstract]]Objective: The rate of obesity for people with chronic psychiatric diseases has been increased. In Taiwan, there is no such research to discuss obesity and correlates. This study was focused on understanding the prevalence and correlates of obesity in a chronic psychiatric hospital. Methods: This was cross-sectional study using physical assessment to explore the prevalence of obesity and to examine the relationship among some variables, obesity and BMI. After acquiring the informed consents, we recruited 288 inpatients from a chronic psychiatric hospital. Results: The most common psychiatric disorder was schizophrenia (n=270, 93.8%) in this study. The prevalence of obesity (BMI ≧ 27 kg/m2 ) was 31.3%. Participants who gained weight also had higher waist circumference (r=0.78, p<.001). Participants who had no medical diseases had lower weight than those who had medical disease (t=-2.95, p<.001). In addition, ANOVA result showed that participants who were diagnosed as bipolar disorder had higher weight than those who had schizophrenia (F=2.94, p<.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of obesity in a chronic psychiatric hospital is lower in Taiwan than that in other countries. Some signifi cant difference between BMI and some variables had been found. The results could be used to enhance the body weight monitoring program and to start the interventions to prevent the obesity