Introduction:

To the World Health Organization, overweight and obesity are metabolic risk factors for non-communicable diseases.

Objective:

Evaluate the association of overweight and obesity to a history of high blood cholesterol, high arterial pressure and diabetes mellitus.

Methods:

An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted of 297 students from a private university in Panama. Overweight-obesity was considered as a dependent variable determined for participants with a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2. High arterial pressure, diabetes mellitus and high blood cholesterol antecedents were established with the basic questionnaire in the STEPS World Health Organization tool. Descriptive, bivariate and multiple analyses were performed with the use of logistic regression models.

Results:

46.12% of the study population were overweight-obese. Statistically significant prevalence was higher in men than in women. 12.45%, 11.11% and 8.75% of the students surveyed reported a history of high arterial pressure, high blood cholesterol and diabetes mellitus, respectively. After adjustment for sex, age and socioeconomic level, participants reporting a history of high blood cholesterol had a greater probability of being overweight-obese (OR = 2.92, CI 95%: 1.07-7.93, p = 0.035).

Conclusions:

Almost half of the university students were overweight-obese. A higher probability of being overweight-obese was found in students reporting high blood cholesterol. It is necessary to implement strategies fostering the acquisition of healthy living habits by the Panamanian university population, thus reducing future cardiovascular risk.

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