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

Abstract

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 2 and BMI ≥ 30 kg/m 2 , 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.