Overweight and obesity affect a large percentage of adults worldwide, reducing life expectancy and posing a great economic burden for society. Between 2009 and 2010, the National Health Survey (ENS in Spanish) reported a high prevalence of overweight (64.5%), sedentary lifestyle (88.6%) and metabolic syndrome (35%) in the adult Chilean population ¹. These high figures have also been obtained in young university students ^2,3.

There is a clear relationship between lifestyles and risk factors ⁴, which are also associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Currently, obesity is the leading cause of death in adults ^5,6, thus generating a serious public health problem around the world ⁷. In Chile, the situation is similar due to the demographic and epidemiological transition of the last decades ^8,9.

Physical inactivity is a risk factor ¹⁰ that can be observed in the alteration of muscles when metabolizing fats and glucose, resulting in modern chronic, metabolic and cardiovascular pathologies ¹¹. In this sense, VO₂ max measuring is recommended as an indicator of aerobic capacity, as it shows the real health status and allows to detect risk groups prone to suffer morbidity conditions, since a healthy person should have an acceptable aerobic capacity ¹².

University students are at a point in their lives that is key for adopting different lifestyles, which they will share with their relatives, and in social and work environments ¹³. For this reason, in order to achieve successful prevention programs, several studies have suggested the importance of identifying risk factors in young adults ^14-16.

The purpose of this study was to determine VO₂ max, fat mass percentage, biochemical profile, and alcohol and tobacco consumption in first year university students enrolled in the Nutrition and Dietetics and Physical Education Pedagogy programs at a Chilean university.

53 students voluntarily participated in this research during their first year in two health promotion careers at Universidad de La Frontera in 2014. 30 were enrolled in the Physical Education Pedagogy program (62.5%), and 23 in the Nutrition and Dietetics program (52.3%).

This study followed the agreements of the Declaration of Helsinki 2013 ¹⁷ and was approved by the Ethics Committee of Universidad de La Frontera. Each student signed an informed consent to participate in the research.

When comparing by academic programs, significant differences were found in the variables VO₂ max and body fat mass (p<0.05). The other study variables did not report any statistical differences (Table 1).

Table 1

Data presented as mean ±SD; p values <0.05 are significant; BMI: body mass index; WC: waist circumference. cHDL: HDL cholesterol; Total Col: total cholesterol; cLDL: LDL cholesterol; IR index: insulin resistance index. Source: Own elaboration based on the data obtained in the study.

32% of the students had excess weight, of which 18.8% were overweight and 13.2% were obese. 50.9% had pressure alteration; 28.3% prehypertension, and 22.6% hypertension. Regarding fat mass percentage, 50.9% of students reported a level above normal, being higher in Nutrition and Dietetics students with 69.5% versus 36.6% in Physical Education Pedagogy (Table 2).

Table 2

Data presented as number of students by category and percentages according to the study sample. FM%: fat mass percentage. Source: Own elaboration based on the data obtained in the study.

Moreover, Table 3 shows that 18.8% of the students had a smoking habit, and 41.5% reported frequent alcohol use.

Table 3

Data presented as number of students by category and percentage according to the study sample.

Regarding VO₂ max, the students, in general, were in the range between poor and fair (48.8%). Similarly, 27.6% were included in the parameters good and excellent; most of them were students of the Physical Education Pedagogy program (36%), and 18.1% of the Nutrition and Dietetics program (Table 4).

Table 4

Data presented as number of students by category and percentage according to the study sample.

The results of this study show low levels of physical fitness, since 48.8% of the evaluated students presented a VO₂ max between fair and poor, which are negative values compared to the results of a study conducted at other Chilean universities ²⁷.

The mean BMI was 24.38 kg/m², which is lower than that reported in a sample of Mexican students ²⁷. 32% of the students evaluated had excess weight, of which 18.8% were overweight and 13.2% were obese. These values are similar to those of university students in the same city -in which 35.6% were overweight or obese ²⁸- and to the findings obtained in students from Saudi Arabia, which reached 31.2% ²⁹. However, differences can be found with other research works that assessed Chilean students as well, obtaining a figure of 78.6% students with normal ranges and only 12% overweight ²⁶.

Regarding fat mass percentage, 50.9% of the evaluated students had excess body fat, which is lower than the results in São Paulo, where the same measurement characteristics were used, finding that 60% of the students reached these levels ³⁰. Furthermore, Cossio et al. ³¹ found 55%, and Zea et al. ³², 56.3% of body fat excess in university students.

It should be noted that excess body fat and sedentary lifestyle determine the true risk for health-related obesity. Therefore, including their assessment in health and lifestyle studies is highly relevant ³³.

The students had a mean blood pressure of 126.10 mmHg, similar to that reported in university students from northern Turkey ³⁴, but higher than that reported in university students from southern Chile ^35,36 and from Somaliland ³⁷. It is alarming that 34.7% of Nutrition and Dietetics students were prehypertensive, and that 30% of students of Physical Education Pedagogy had high blood pressure, which are results similar to those in students from the same country, where 35.1% were prehypertensive ³⁸, although the classification criteria were different. The latter condition is associated with alcohol and nicotine consumption, as well as with poor diet schedules and quality, and physical inactivity.

This work showed alcohol consumption in 41.5% of the students, which coincides with the results of a research conducted in Colombian medical students ³⁹. Regarding tobacco consumption, 18.9% claimed they were smokers, which is lower than numbers of sedentary university students from Temuco, who reached 45.1% ⁴⁰. These results are alarming, since, in most cases, these habits have been proven to increase as university studies advance ⁴¹. For this reason, reducing tobacco use would reduce plasma disorders caused by smoking ⁴². In relation to this, total cholesterol, HDL-C, LDL-C and triglycerides showed lower values in these students than in other investigations, in which smoking was higher ^36,40, as in basal glucose ³⁵.

The university population is considered essential for the promotion and prevention of health for future generations ⁴³. Studies have shown that risk factors in students tend to increase, even during the first semester in the university ⁴⁴. In consequence, identifying their nutritional status and the frequency of physical activity is crucial to actually understand the resources necessary to promote a healthy lifestyle ⁴⁵.

The results obtained in this research show a poor physical condition in students, who have high fat mass percentages and high levels of overweight or obesity and blood pressure. This proves that they are in a critical period, during which they are prone to develop noncommunicable diseases. This is a highly concerning situation, since they will turn into professional role models of healthy lifestyles. Thus, it is necessary to create greater and better instances of education in order to generate an impact, that is to say, to improve the quality of life and to create concrete habits in relation to food consumption and physical activity.