Avaliação de estilo de vida, marcadores antropométricos e bioimpedância entre estudantes universitários com sobrepeso e obesidade

Abstract

Introduction Overweight and obesity are the main risk factors for the development of NCDs, while obesity is a major public health problem. Therefore, university students are more susceptible to these diseases, as this environment represents the place where they are in dietary transition and building new habits, being an important target for the development of a healthy lifestyle. Objective: To evaluate the lifestyle, anthropometric and bioimpedance markers among overweight and obese university students. Method: This is an exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, with the target audience being students enrolled in courses at a public higher education institution, located in the city of Manaus-AM. A total of 296 students participated and the data collection was divided into two stages: the first was online through a form on the Google Forms platform containing the Fantastic Lifestyle Questionnaire and sociodemographic questions; and the second was in person, with the collection of objective data: anthropometric measurements, bioimpedance and blood pressure measurement. The data collected were compiled, entered in pairs, stored and statistically analyzed with the help of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21.0. Categorical variables were presented in tables containing absolute (n) and relative (%) frequencies. Continuous variables were presented as medians and interquartile ranges. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to assess the normality of the variables and, depending on the behavior of these variables, the following tests were considered: normal distribution, Student's t-test, and abnormal Mann Whitney distribution. Continuous variables were described as medians and interquartile ranges. For categorical variables, Fisher's exact test or the chi-square test were used, considering (p≤0.05). Results: Among the 296 participants, just over ¼ of the university students were overweight (37.5%), where the prevalence of overweight (26.35%) was higher than that of obesity (11.14%). 39.5% rated their health as “Fair”, and 36.5% “To be improved”. 50% of overweight students and 60.6% of obese students scored “Good” on the Fantastic Lifestyle Questionnaire, which is an adequate lifestyle, which according to other studies, students who rate themselves as having fair or improving health tend to score “Good” on the Fantastic Lifestyle. There was a statistical difference between overweight and obese students regarding Nutrition. However, it is important to analyze the percentages in the domains Physical Activity, Sleep, seat belt, stress and safe sex, Type of behavior and Introspection, as they demonstrated a sedentary lifestyle, not having a good night's sleep and being tired, having difficulty dealing with daily stress, appearing to be in a hurry, often feeling angry and hostile, having negative thoughts, not being very optimistic, feeling tense and disappointed, being sad and depressed. Among the anthropometric and bioimpedance markers, the students showed significance for Visceral Fat (p=0.002), Skeletal Muscle (p=<0.001), Neck Circumference (p=0.004), Waist Circumference (p=<0.001), and Conicity Index (p=0.005), demonstrating that obese students have a high risk for the presence of visceral adiposity, increased waist and neck circumference, a higher percentage for the conicity index, in addition to a low skeletal muscle index. Conclusion: It was identified that among overweight and obese students, the “Nutrition (N)” domain showed greater changes, which suggests the need for further research with specific questionnaires for the nutritional factor, in addition to the socioeconomic and cultural issues regarding this issue among students in the North region. Waist Circumference (WC) and Neck Circumference (NC) showed high-risk percentages among obese students, especially in neck circumference. Thus, obesity has proven to be a complex disease and requires further investigation through blood biomarkers and lipid profile. The concept of lifestyle has also proven to be a form of prevention, since when analyzing the lifestyle of students, it was possible to demonstrate through other research that universities also need to be investigated and studied, and it is necessary to understand which aspects of this environment require interventions for the quality of life and health promotion of university students.