Risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases in university students

Abstract

The genesis of chronic non-communicable diseases are associated with risk factors related to lifestyles harmful to health. It is interesting to investigate the presence or not of these factors in students of the Faculty of Medicine. The general objective of this research was to establish the main risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases in 2nd year students of the Doctorate in Medicine, Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics and Bachelor of Nursing degrees at the Faculty of Medicine of the Evangelical University of El Salvador cycle I-2020. The methodology used was a descriptive cross-sectional study, in which 247 students were studied, where anthropometric measurements were taken: weight, height and abdominal circumference, the body mass index and the waist-hip ratio of each one were calculated. from them; and a questionnaire was passed to obtain information on physical activity and eating habits. The results obtained were prevalence of overweight/obesity was 61.94%, being 36.03% overweight and 25.91% obesity. In addition, a high percentage of inadequate eating habits and lack of physical activity were found. It was found that the majority of students consume at least one sugary drink per day, with a percentage of 85.8% in the faculty and by schools the distribution was 44.17% for the School of Medicine, 41.66% for Nutrition and 27.77% for Nursing.