Excesso de peso corporal em universitários: prevalências e associação com atividade física e tempo sedentário

Abstract

Overweight and obesity imply the condition of excess body weight (EBW) and represent important problems for the health of university students and may be associated with direct factors and effect modifiers. This dissertation was to analyze the scientific production and the association of physical activity and sedentary time in relation to EBW in university students. It consisted of three articles, the first article aimed to characterize the prevalence and the factors associated with EBW in college students, through a systematic review; the 2nd article aimed to estimate the prevalence and associations between physical activity and sedentary time in relation to overweight and obesity in university students from a higher education institution in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The outcomes were overweight and obesity and the associations estimated via Odds Ratio (OR) through Multinomial Logistic Regression; and in the 3rd article, the objective was to estimate the moderating effects on the association between physical activity and sedentary time in relation to EBW in university students from a higher education institution in Minas Gerais, Brazil. EBW was the outcome and the association estimated via Odds Ratio (OR) through Binary Logistic Regression. In the 1st article, the prevalence of EBW ranged from 9.5% to 47.0% and the associated factors such as risk of EBW were low level of physical activity and family history of EBW, and the factor associated with protection against EBW was regular physical activity. In the 2nd article, the prevalence of overweight the highest proportion was in men and obesity in women (27.5% and 15.5% vs. 6.9% and 8.0%, respectively). There was an association of sedentary time in relation to obesity in men, regardless of sociodemographic characteristics (OR = 3.54; 95% CI: 1.04 - 12.12) and link to the university (OR = 3.48; 95% CI: 1.01 - 11.99). After adjusting for eating behaviors, no association was observed in men (OR = 3.49; 95% CI: 0.99 - 12.23). For women, no significant associations were found. In the 3rd article, the prevalence of EBW was 27.8%. Insufficiently active undergraduate students are more likely to be EBW when they did not consume alcohol (OR = 1.91; 95% CI: 1.06 - 3.47). In addition, undergraduate students with a sedentary time ≥6 hours were less likely to be overweight when they had a longer university experience (OR = 0.62; 95% CI: 0.40 - 0.95). In conclusion, studies on EBW in college students showed differences in methodological aspects, mainly the non-standardized use of the instruments used to measure EBW in the investigated population. Through the survey of information at the institution, it was observed that the prevalence of EBW in undergraduate students was high, with men more prone to overweight and women to obesity, with direct association and moderating effects.