Abstract

Objective: to determine the effect of national holidays (NH) on nutritional status (NS), physical fitness, (PF) level of physical activity (PAL) and eating habits (EH) in university students.Method: 151 students of both sexes from three Chilean universities participated. The NS was evaluated by anthropometric measures, thePFby the 6-minute walk test, the PAL was with the GPAQ questionnaire, the HA by the National Health Survey. The Student's t-test was applied for related samples to compare pre and. The effect size (ES) was calculated with Cohen's d.Results: differences were found between pre and posttest, with a strong SEin alcohol consumption (p<0.001; d=1.10) and a decrease and moderate ES in EH(p<0.001; d=0.54). Differences were observed between ESbetween women and men, the latter being significant in body mass index (p<0.001), PAL (p<0.001), waterconsumption(p<0.001) and soft drinks (p<0.001). Conclusions: all NSvariables increase significantly, PF decreased in men and women, PAL increased only in men,and in EH, the consumption of soft drinks and alcohol increased.