Abstract

Abstract Background: In Chile obesity has increased (25.1% to 34%), and sedentary lifestyle has remained at 86.7% since 2010 to 2017 despite National programs and campaigns for improvements. It is unknown the prevalence of these and other lifestyle factors in students of medical careers, the expected future promotors of healthy lifestyles throughout their work. Objectives: To determine prevalence of obesity, physical inactivity, emotional stress, smoking and use of alcohol in first year students at University of Chile Faculties of Medicine and Dentistry at admission and throughout their first academic year. Methods: In a longitudinal randomized sample of 253 students (186 females) who completed the study, weight, height, waist circumference, waist circumference-weight ratio, BMI, food consumption, smoking (Glover-Nilsson Test) alcohol use (AUDIT), perceived stress level (PSS), and physical activity (GPAQ) at the first week, 3 and 6 months after their admission were measured. Cochran Test for dichotomic variables and Friedman test for non-parametric variables were used. Results: Average age was 19.1 ± 0.95 years, and blood pressure (first week) 117.2 ± 14.9 / 68.8 ± 8.7 mm/Hg. All the other results are listed in Table 1. Significant increasing prevalence of obesity (general and abdominal, 6.3% to 10.3%) and physical inactivity (< 600 MET/min/week, 16.6% to 22.9%), and poor eating habits with similar sex trends were found. High level PSS persisted throughout the study. Smoking in 17.8 % the first week without significant changes and harmful alcohol consumption declined significantly since admission (10.7 to 5.1%). Conclusions: Progressive obesity and physical inactivity, persistent highly perceived stress, poor eating habits, prevalence of smoking and harmful consumption of alcohol in first year medical students are of concern. Inclusion of lifestyle counseling in the curriculum and revision of its priorities and structure should be considered. A longer follow-up in a larger student cohort is being planned.