Introduction

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) cause 25% world’s deaths. In America, Argentina ranks fourth. Factors such as sedentary lifestyle, smoking habits, eating habits and genetic predisposition, would be responsible. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of CVD risk factors (RF) in Nutrition students.

Material and Methods

A cross-sectional descriptive study was performed in 185 students, aged between 19 and 30 years. Weight, height, and waist circumference (WC) were measured. In addition, they were questioned about family history of chronic noncommunicable diseases (CNCDs), smoking, alcohol and physical activity (PA). Total cholesterol (TC), HDL-cholesterol (HDL-c), LDL-cholesterol (LDL-c), triglycerides (TG), glucose, Castelli index (CI) and TG/HDL-c ratio were quantified. Differences in continuous variables between groups were evaluated with t test of Student. The statistical significance level assumed was 5%. Minitab 16 program was used.

Results

A 75.7% history of CNCDs was found. The body mass index showed 10.3% of overweight and 2.2% of obesity, and cardiovascular risk according to WC was 9.7%. The most altered parameter was LDL-c (46.9%). 21.1% presented hypercholesterolemia and 21.6%, HDL-c decreased. 13.5% presented CI>4.5, whereas when the suggested cut-off point was considered for the Argentine population (CIA>3.25), 39.5% surpassed it. 11.4% had high TG/HDL-c. 8.1% smoked, 56.2% took alcoholic beverages and half did not engage in PA. The RF of CVD that presented statistically significant differences according to sex were overweight, HDL-c and CI, resulting in all the cases most unfavorable in men.

Conclusions

Family history of CNCDs, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, hypercholesterolemia with decreased HDL-c, marked elevation of LDL-c and elevated CI was remarkable. As the most of these cardiovascular RF are modifiable, it is suggested to establish nutritional education programs and promotion of healthy lifestyles.

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