Body fat percentage associated with demographic, clinical, and academic factors in students of a public university

Authors

  • María del Pilar Gómez-Luján Universidad de Trujillo, Perú
  • Soledad Marlene Pesantes-Shimajuko Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú
  • Giovanna Sara Cáceda Ñazco Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú
  • Celixa Lucía Pérez-Valdez Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú
  • Julio Hilario-Vargas Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú
  • Zoila Esperanza Leitón-Espinoza Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14482/sun.39.02.258.115

Keywords:

Key words: body fat, bioimpedance, university students

Abstract

Aim: To determine the association between age, gender, history of personal morbidity (diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, obesity) and professional career, with respect to the percentage of body fat in undergraduate students at a public university in Peru.

Materials and method: Descriptive, analytical and cross-sectional study. 390 students enrolled in careers in health, education and social sciences at the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo participated. The fat percentage (%BF) was estimated using the bioimpedance method. For bivariate analysis, t-student or ANOVA was used in case of normal distribution and those without normal distribution, U-Mann Whitney or Kruskall Wallis. To determine the correlation between numerical variables and BF%, the Pearson or Spearman test was used, according to normality distribution.

For the multivariate analysis, multiple linear regression was applied. Informed consent was obtained from each participant, with approval from the Ethics Committee No 2019/CE/FAC/ENF.

Results: 390 students participated. The median age was 19 years [18-20], 72.6% were female, most from the health area (58.7%). The most frequent personal history was obesity 10.77%. The median BF% was 26.35% [20.78-30.2]. In the bivariate analysis, a significant association was found between BF% and gender factors (p <0.001), personal history of arterial hypertension (p= 0.041) and obesity (p<0.001). In the multivariate analysis, they remained with a significant gender association (p<0.001), presenting a higher %BF for women and a personal history of obesity (p<0.001).

Conclusions: The factors associated with body fat percentage in undergraduate university students were female gender and personal history of obesity.

Author Biographies

  • María del Pilar Gómez-Luján, Universidad de Trujillo, Perú

    Dra. en Enfermería,     Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (Perú).    Profesor principal Facultad de Enfermería de la misma universidad. mpgomezl@unitru.edu.pe. Orcid: 0000-0003-0429-5873

  • Soledad Marlene Pesantes-Shimajuko, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú

    Dra. en Enfermería, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (Perú).     Profesor principal Facultad de Enfermería de la misma universidad. spesantes@unitru.edu.pe.     Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3015-9210

  • Giovanna Sara Cáceda Ñazco, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú

    Dra. en Salud Pública, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (Perú). Profesor auxiliar Facultad de Enfermería de la misma universidad. gcaceda@unitru.edu.pe. Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2179-1078

  • Celixa Lucía Pérez-Valdez, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú

    Dra. en Enfermería,  Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (Perú). Profesor principal Facultad de Enfermería de la misma universidad .   cperez@unitru.edu.pe. Orcid: 0000-0001-5234-2748

  • Julio Hilario-Vargas, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú

    Dr. En Ciencias Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (Perú). Profesor     principal Facultad de Medicina de la misma universidad. jhilario@unitru.edu.pe. Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8656-6843.

  • Zoila Esperanza Leitón-Espinoza, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Perú

    Dra. en Salud Pública, Universidad Nacional de Trujillo (Perú). Profesor Principal Facultad de Enfermería de la misma universidad. zeleiton@unitru.edu.pe. Orcid:  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5040-7042

Published

2023-09-18

Issue

Section

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

How to Cite

Body fat percentage associated with demographic, clinical, and academic factors in students of a public university. (2023). SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL SALUD UNINORTE, 39(2), 584-600. https://doi.org/10.14482/sun.39.02.258.115

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