Hábitos alimentarios y su influencia en la composición corporal en estudiantes universitarios de la carrera de Dietética y Nutrición de la Universidad de Guayaquil.

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to analyze dietary habits and their influence on body composition in university The objective of the present research work is to analyse dietary habits and their influ-ence on body composition in university students of the Dietetics and Nutrition ca-reer at the Universidad de Guayaquil. The study is descriptive, cross-sectional and comparative, in which 90 students from 18 to 29 years old selected by non-probabilistic sampling participated. Eating habits were evaluated through a survey. Data on body mass index (BMI), percentage of lean mass (% MM), percent-age of fat mass (% MG) and cardiovascu-lar risk determined by abdominal perimeter were obtained. We compared eating habits and their influence on body composition. It was found that most students reported having regular eating habits and eating junk food at times. 33.2% presented excess weight according to BMI. 71.1% of the students presented excess percentage of fat mass while 24.4% had low muscle mass. 11.1% of the students had high metabolic and cardi-ovascular risk. Statistically significant dif-ferences were found in the body mass in-dex (p = 0.0002), percentage of fat mass (p = 0.0009) and abdominal perimeter (p = 0.0011) among the different groups of students according to their fre-quency of junk food consumption. A sta-tistically significant difference was found in the percentage of fat mass of the differ-ent groups according to their frequency of consumption of soft drinks (p = t0.0169). There was also a statistically significant difference in the percentage of fat mass of the groups according to their belief of maintaining a normal weight (p = 0.0339). Finally, there was a statistically significant difference (p = 0.0472) in the abdominal perimeter of the groups classi-fied according to which meal of the day usually eat heavier (breakfast, lunch, snack, or homogeneous consumption). It is concluded that unhealthy eating habits have a negative influence on the body mass index, percentage of fat mass and abdominal perimeter of university stu-dents.