Overweight and obesity among Brazilian healthcare university students: prevalence and associated factors.

OBJECTIVE

Obesity is an important factor for cardiovascular and metabolic events. Thus, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of overweight/obesity and the associated factors among healthcare university students.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional university-based study of 2,245 healthcare university students in the Midwest region of Brazil was conducted in 2018. Overweight and obesity were defined as body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m and BMI ≥ 30 kg/m, respectively. Demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral, family and comorbidities characteristics were investigated. Poisson regression was used for the multivariable analysis. All analysis was stratified by sex.

RESULTS

The mean age of the sample was 22.7 years (standard deviation = 4.1) and 69.5% of the students was female. The prevalence of overweight and obesity were 13.9% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 12.2- 15.6) and 4% (95% CI: 3.0-4.9) for women and 34.5% (95% CI: 30.9-38.1) and 11.3% (95% CI: 8.9-13.6) for men, respectively. After multivariate adjustment, the prevalence of overweight/obesity was at least 70% higher in female students aged 24 years or older (prevalence ratio [PR] = 1.73; 95% CI: 1.24-2.41) and those who smoke (PR = 1.95; 95% CI: 1.66-3.02). Additionally, female students with a family history of obesity (PR = 2.01; 95% CI: 1.46-2.77) or with two or three comorbidities (PR = 2.09; 95% CI: 1.43-3.04) exhibited a significantly higher probability for overweight/obesity. Similar findings were observed in male students, but with smaller effect sizes.

CONCLUSION

This study revealed a high prevalence of overweight/obesity among healthcare university students, especially in men. It was related to the socio-demographic and family characteristics rather than behavioral factors.