Body composition, eating habits and physical activity in university students. Lima-Perú

Introduction: In the current epidemiological and nutri-tional context, knowledge about the eating habits, lifestyles,and nutritional conditions of young university students is ur-gently needed.Objective: To identify body composition, eating habits,and physical activity in university students. Materials and Methods: Observational-cross-sectionalstudy. The population consisted of university students between16 and 25 years of age (n = 118). The variables studied were:age, sex, weight, height, BMI, body fat mass, skeletal musclemass, visceral fat, waist circumference, dietary habits, andphysical activity. Body composition was measured by anthro-pometry and bioelectrical impedance. Food consumption wasobtained with the Block Screening Questionnaire. The shortInternational Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was usedto assess physical activity. Chi-Square and T-Student tests wereused as hypothesis contrasts. To determine associations be-tween variables, a p-value <0.05 was considered statisticallysignificant.Results: Skeletal muscle mass was higher in males (38%)than in females (25%), while body fat was higher in females(37%) than in males (24%). These differences were statisti-cally significant. Regarding dietary habits, 19% had a diet highand very high in fat, and less than 1% had normal consump-tion of fruits, vegetables, and fiber. Regarding physical activity,46% indicated high physical activity, 52% moderate, and2.5% low activity. It was observed that men had more highphysical activity than women; however, women had moremoderate and low physical activity than men (p = 0.0299). Nostatistically significant differences were found for the studyvariables according to age ranges.Conclusions: Body composition was variable and sex-de-pendent. A minimum percentage of university students hadadequate intakes of fruits, vegetables, and fiber. Men had ahigher level of physical activity than women.(AU)