Date of Conferral

5-8-2025

Date of Award

May 2025

Degree

Doctor of Public Health (DrPH)

School

Public Health

Advisor

Jennifer Oliphant

Abstract

Obesity is a global health concern, affecting individuals of all ages and ethnicities worldwide. A key factor in health concerns related to obesity is metabolic health: Obese individuals are either metabolically healthy obese or metabolically unhealthy obese, leading to different degrees of risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.. There is a lack of comprehensive research examining the association between metabolic health status among obese individuals and kidney, liver, and stomach diseases. This quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted to examine whether metabolic health status is a significant predictor of kidney, liver, and stomach diseases among obese individuals when lifestyle is a modifier. Guided by health lifestyle theory, the research questions asked about associations between metabolic health and kidney, liver, and stomach disease diagnoses while controlling for age, alcohol use, education level, exercise, gender, general health, income level, marital status, and race. Data for 124,868 U.S. individuals 18 years and older were accessed from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System database of 2021 and analyzed using binary logistic regression. Metabolic health status does not significantly predict kidney and stomach diseases, suggesting the need for further research to discover stronger predictors of these conditions. Results were inconclusive on the predictive relationship of metabolic health status and liver disease because of insufficient participants with liver disease to generate a result. The findings can promote public health initiatives to manage obesity and metabolic abnormalities to reduce disease while promoting positive social change; information may lead to more effective interventions targeting metabolic health on cancer and other disease outcomes.

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