Factors associated with cardiovascular risk in high school students of a public school in the city of Santiago de Cali, Colombia

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, and they have become a problem of interest of public health, both for developed and developing countries. In this regard, the decrease in time devoted to physical activity and the increase of sedentary activities stand out, thus making physical inactivity one of the many risk factors for Cardiovascular diseases. The objective was to determine the factors associated with cardiovascular risk in students of an educational institution in the city of Cali, Colombia. Materials and Methods: It is an observational and analytical epidemiological study with a sample of 227 randomly selected students, with 95 % reliability. To determine the level of physical activity in schoolchildren, researchers applied the international ipaq physical activity questionnaire, and took anthropometric measures such as weight, height, and waist and hip circumference. Results: 96 % of the participants presented low cardiovascular risk. Likewise, the variables that showed a statistically significant association with cardiovascular risk were alcohol consumption and body mass index, which predict 81 % of the possibility of being at risk. Conclusions: The low cardiovascular risk and the high level of physical activity prevailed in the evaluated schoolchildren, significant differences regarding gender were observed, finding that men have higher values in weight, height, and waist/hip ratio compared to females. Finally, it was established that the factors associated with cardiovascular risk are body mass index and alcohol consumption.