Avaliação do nível de atividade física, do nível de condicionamento cardio-respiratório e do risco cardiovascular em estudantes de medicina e educação física

Abstract

Recent studies indicate a strong association among physical inactivity, low level of cardio-respiratory fitness and the presence of cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. Medicine and Physical Education students are involved in the field of health rehabilitation, promotion and conservation, being physical activity a priority intervention to achieve this goal. However, little is known about the adoption of physical activity as part of the life style of Medicine and Physical Education students. The main goal of this paper is to compare the level of physical activity, the level of cardio-respiratory fitness and the cardiovascular risk in students of Medicine and Physical Education. The data collection took place at the Physical Education Department at the Federal University of Sergipe. In a first stage, the IPAQ questionnaire was applied to quantify the amount of physical activity in 126 students from the 7th and 8th periods of Medicine and Physical Education courses. In a second stage, 40 students were randomly selected, 20 from each course, to evaluate cardiovascular risk factors and cardio-respiratory fitness. We measured (a) blood pressure; (b) body mass index (BMI); (c) fat percentage (electrical bioimpedance); (d) waist circumference (WC); (e) biochemical lab tests and (f) cardio-respiratory fitness (Kline test). Comparing Medicine students versus Physical Education students, we noticed a higher frequency of subjects presenting: low level of physical activity (55 vs 15%; p=0,008); pre-high blood pressure by SBP (80 vs 25%; p=0,000) and by DBP (45 vs 5%; p=0,003); overweight (50 vs 10%; p=0,006); waist circumference (25 vs 0%; p=0,017); elevated total cholesterol (165±28 vs 142±28mg/dL; p=0,015); high LDLc (99±27 vs 81±23 mg/dL; p=0,026); high glycemia (81±8 vs 75±7 mg/dL; p=0,013); lower cardio-respiratory fitness (48±8 vs 56±7 L.min.-1; p=0,001). Even though the knowledge that practicing physical activities is an important preventive intervention for cardiovascular diseases, students of Medicine display a smaller amount of physical activities practice, lower level of cardio-respiratory fitness and, most importantly, higher frequency of cardiovascular risk, compared to those of Physical Education.