[Cardiovascular risk factor prevalence in university students].

OBJECTIVE Determining cardiovascular risk factor prevalence in university students from Medellin. DESIGN A descriptive study of 112 students determined their lipid profile and a survey was conducted to assess their life-style and family history. There results were analyzed by gender using Chi² test and simple binary logistic regression. RESULTS 82.1 % of the sample was female. A modifiable risk factor was found for at least 99.1 % of the study population: sedentary life-style (79.5 %), smoking (17 %), alcohol consumption (75.0 %), atherogenic diet (78.6 %), hypertension (1.8 %), some form of dyslipidemia (48.3 % BMI >25 (4.5 %)) and stress (86.7 %). At least one non-modifiable risk factor was identified in 77.7 % of the students. CONCLUSIONS New intervention strategies are needed given the significant percentage of the target population ± 19 mean age having cardiovascular disease risk factors and young people must be encouraged to develop healthy life-styles to reduce cardiovascular risk factor prevalence.