Lifestyles and health risks of university students

Abstract

Introduction: University life represents an important change in students' development; since they enter adulthood, in which they will deal with academic challenges and responsibilities; reducing considerably the time to carry out physical, recreational and/or cultural activities; favoring diseases related to overweight and obesity, because of sedentarism, potentializing the consumption of harmful substances as relaxation or anti-stress mechanisms. Objective: To analyze the variables in the consumption of tobacco, alcohol, physical and cultural activity in new students in the years 2016, 2017 and 2018. Materials and methods: Comparative, observational study with a descriptive scope. It was conducted by non-probabilistic sampling at convenience, in three generations, 2016, 2017 and 2018. The variables, alcohol consumption, tobacco consumption, frequency of physical activity and frequency of cultural activities were evaluated. Results and conclusions: Of the three generations evaluated, the one with the highest average for the four variables to be evaluated was 2017. The practice of cultural activities is the least performed in the three generations. The analysis of alcohol and tobacco consumption, as well as physical activity, is consistent with the data reported in ENSANUT 2016, 2018, and ENCODAT 2017.