Asociación entre estado nutricional, estilo de vida y estrés académico en estudiantes universitarios: Un caso de estudio

Introduction: University students are in a stage of life of great importance, since, it is here when lifestyles are generally consolidated, in addition, it is known that stress can have an impact on eating habits and behaviors associated with these. Objective: To evaluate the association between nutritional status, lifestyles and academic stress in university students. Materials and methods: Analytical cross-sectional study. Nutritional status was evaluated using the tetrapolar bioimpedance method and under consideration of the following parameters: BMI, fat mass, visceral fat and phase angle. Results: The results indicate that there is no statistically significant relationship between stress and BMI (r= 0.077; p= 0.265), fat mass (r= 0.124; p= 0.073), visceral fat (r= 0.055; p= 0.430) and phase angle (r= -0.095; p= 0.167). There is also no statistically significant relationship between the dimensions of academic stress and BMI, fat mass, visceral fat and phase angle (p> 0.05). However, it is observed that lifestyle has a relationship with fat mass (r= -0.237; p= 0.001) and visceral fat (r= -0.185; p= 0.007), in both cases the relationship is inversely proportional. Conclusion: Lifestyle is directly related to nutritional status, and significantly and inversely proportional to fat mass and visceral fat. As for eating habits and physical activity, there is a significant and inversely proportional relationship with BMI, fat mass and visceral fat. In addition, recreation and leisure time management have a significant and inversely proportional relationship with fat mass, as well as self-care and medical care with visceral fat.