Introduction:

College life carries changes in lifestyle mainly because the behaviors assumed during this stage are considered unhealthy, a worrying situation for early noncommunicable diseases development.

Objective:

To characterize the risk factors associated to lifestyle and noncommunicable diseases of the students from accounting, economic aculty and administrative sciences of a public university of Cauca.

Materials and methods:

A 99 university students cross-sectional, analytical study that asked about the sociodemographic, academic, anthropometric and behavioral factors associated with noncommunicable diseases, based on steps 1 and 2 of the STEPS instrument validated by the World Health Organization.

Results:

We found an average age of 22.5 years, a normal body mass index for both sexes and a hip waist index that shows a greater percentage of risk in the female gender, a high alcohol consumption was found, students considered having a sedentary lifestyle, did not smoke and did not consume fruits and vegetables, while a statistically significant relationship was found between sex and fun reasons to consume alcoholic beverages.

Conclusion:

The findings show a vulnerable university population to suffer noncommunicable diseases due to their perception of sedentary life, low intake of fruits and vegetables, alcohol consumption; Concerns that should be controlled based on intervention proposals that promote healthy lifestyles.