Objective:

To evaluate body composition according to obesity risk factor in healthy university students.

Materials and methods:

Descriptive, cross-sectional study. Population shows 217 students of the faculty of health sciences of a private University of Barranquilla between the ages of 20 and 33 who met the inclusion criteria with prior informed consent. The variables were evaluated: sex, age, body mass index, body fat, visceral fat, by impedance method and blood pressure levels.

Results:

77 % female, 23 % male, the average age was 21 years with a standard deviation of 3.97 years, 57.6 % revealed normal Body Mass Index 24.4 % by weight, the female group with BMI normal presented high body fat (44.80 %) and very high (12.00 %), an increase in body fat was detected as high (30.95 %) and very high (44.64 %) in the female gender and visceral fat as high (16.33 %) and very high (4.08%), the male gender showed figures of frank hypertension (26.53 %).

Conclusions:

the highest percentage of the young people evaluated was in the normal classification for both sexes, however, in relation to visceral fat it was detected in a greater percentage in the male gender. The study allowed us to identify that the BMI has an influence on the result of Body Fat, being higher in the female gender. Regarding the levels of hypertension, it was found that the male gender is more associated with hypertension and the female gender is associated with hypotension. Results of interest for future research.

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