Mosqueira-Villegas María, Bardales-Zuta Victor Hugo, Fernández-Rodríguez Lissett Jeanette
School of Medicine, Universidad Privada Antenor Orrego, Trujillo, PER.
Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital I de Florencia de Mora EsSalud, Trujillo, PER.
Cureus. 2025 Mar 28;17(3):e81378. doi: 10.7759/cureus.81378. eCollection 2025 Mar.
Objectives Given that many university students engage in unhealthy lifestyle choices that can lead to overweight and obesity and that the same students often have poor quality of life (QoL) metrics, we aimed to search for a relationship between QoL and body mass index (BMI) among first-year medical students enrolled in a Peruvian university. Materials and methods This was a cross-sectional convenience sample study. It consisted of 150 first-year medical students who were generally healthy. The BMI and QoL of the participants were measured using a health scale and the Short Form-36 (SF-36) QoL-validated questionnaire translated into Spanish. Results The participants consisted of 89 women and 61 men, with a median age of 19 years. Sixty percent of students were of normal weight, and 13% were obese. BMI weakly predicted SF-36 score, R= 0.035, F(1,148) = 5.39, p = 0.022, β = -0.72, p = 0.022, α = 86.78, p < 0.001. This correlation was mostly driven by the physical functioning and general health aspects of QoL. Conclusions A small, but statistically significant, negative correlation exists between BMI and SF-36 scores among the study participants, indicating that obese first-year students had lower QoL than their normal-weight counterparts. This suggests that nutritional intervention among first-year students may improve QoL in subsequent years of their university career.
目的 鉴于许多大学生选择不健康的生活方式，可能导致超重和肥胖，且这些学生的生活质量（QoL）指标往往较差，我们旨在探寻秘鲁一所大学的一年级医学生的生活质量与体重指数（BMI）之间的关系。
材料与方法 这是一项横断面便利抽样研究。研究对象为150名总体健康的一年级医学生。使用健康秤测量参与者的BMI，并使用翻译成西班牙语的经过生活质量验证的简短健康调查问卷（SF-36）来测量生活质量。
结果 参与者包括89名女性和61名男性，中位年龄为19岁。60%的学生体重正常，13%的学生肥胖。BMI对SF-36评分的预测作用较弱，R = 0.035，F(1,148) = 5.39，p = 0.022，β = -0.72，p = 0.022，α = 86.78，p < 0.001。这种相关性主要由生活质量的身体功能和总体健康方面驱动。
结论 在研究参与者中，BMI与SF-36评分之间存在微小但具有统计学意义的负相关，这表明肥胖的一年级学生的生活质量低于体重正常的同龄人。这表明对一年级学生进行营养干预可能会在其大学生涯的后续几年中改善生活质量。
