Cent Eur J Public Health 2018, 26(Supplement):S12-S18 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a5477

Prevalence of lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors in a group of medical students

Kvetoslava Rimárová1, Erik Dorko1, Jana Diabelková1, Zlatana Sulinová1, Peter Urdzík2, Nikola Pelechová1, Nika Konrádyová1
1 Department of Public Health and Hygiene, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Košice, Slovak Republic
2 Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice and Louis Pasteur University Hospital, Košice, Slovak Republic

Objective: The aim of the cross-sectional study was to evaluate cardiovascular risk factors in the group of medical students with gender, overweight and obesity categorisation.

Methods: Cross-sectional study included 364 medical students, 207 females and 157 males. We investigated anthropometric parameters, BMI, body fat percentage, WHR (waist-hip ratio), TCH (total cholesterol) and LDL-CH (LDL-cholesterol), SBP and DBP (systolic and diastolic blood pressure). The participants also completed questionnaires with socio-demographic characteristic, including smoking, unhealthy eating, self-perceived health, and physical activity status. Statistical analysis used t-test differences in arithmetic means and OR calculation with 95% CI.

Results: Prevalence of increased blood pressure (> SBP/DBP 120/80 mmHg) among participants was 10.99% (SBP) and 9.07% (DBP). The results confirmed risk of "overweight + obesity" in 15.38% (using BMI evaluation) versus 18.54% cases (using body fat percentage evaluation). The results of the study confirmed statistically higher risk for males compared to females in the following parameters: SBP, DBP, BMI, body fat percentage, self-perceived health, unhealthy eating and body weight watching. "Overweight and obesity" group (BMI evaluation) confirmed all factors on statistically significant level a risky group: SBP, DBP, body fat percentage, TCH, self-perceived health, smoking, stress at university, and body weight watching. The outputs confirmed, on the other hand, low amount of clinical obesity (0.8%), clinical hypertension (BP > 140/90) 1.1%, and clinically higher cholesterol level (TCH > 5.2 mmol/l) in 8.7% participants.

Conclusions: We confirmed higher prevalence or cardiovascular risk factors among males. Also, group of "overweight and obese" students had higher frequency of cardiovascular risk factors. Border limits for risk evaluation were strong, so on clinical level we can evaluate the group of medical students as healthy. In the group of young medical students, we confirmed lower frequency of risk factors compared to the Slovak population average.

Keywords: cardiovascular risk factors, medical, students, habit

Received: July 4, 2018; Revised: November 12, 2018; Accepted: November 12, 2018; Published: December 31, 2018  Show citation

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Rimárová K, Dorko E, Diabelková J, Sulinová Z, Urdzík P, Pelechová N, Konrádyová N. Prevalence of lifestyle and cardiovascular risk factors in a group of medical students. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2018;26(Supplement):S12-18. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a5477. PubMed PMID: 30817867.
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