Anthropometric and Lipid Profile in Medical Students. Influence of a Physical Exercise Program

Abstract

Introduction: Most students in health programs do not practice physical exercise due to the high level of stress involved in their curriculum, a condition that makes them a population at high cardiovascular risk.

Objective: Determine the influence of an exercise program on anthropometric and lipid profile of medical students.

Methods: Acommunity trial type quasi-experimental study, through a 12-week exercise intervention, was made. Athletes and people doing regular exercise, or with altered lipid profile results were excluded. The anthropometric assessment was performed as directed by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry.

Results: We studied 50 subjects, distributed in 33 women, 17 men, and average age 20 ± 2.7 years. Weight, waist circumference, bone percentage, residual percentage and BMI were not significantly different after exercise. While the waist-hip ratio, muscle percentage, skin percentage and fat percentage were significantly different after exercise. High-density lipoproteins decreased and other profile variables increased significantly.

Conclusion: This study showed that the exercise program positively influences physical structure, given that it increased muscle percentage and decreased fat percentage, but not enough to positively change the lipid profile of the studied population. Further it suggests the need for intervention programs on healthy habits (healthy foods, appropriate rest and sleep intervals) for medical students.