Oxidative Stress, Insulin-Resistance and Overweight Are Associated to Unhealthy Behaviors in Chilean University Students

Unhealthy behaviors in Western population are strongly associate with chronic non-communicable diseases, such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes. In cross-sectional study ex-plores the association of various behaviors and metabolic status in Chilean university students. A total of 190 students from School of Medicine of the Universidad Católica de la Santísima Con-cepción participated in a survey of frequency of food and licit drug consumption was comple-mented with anthropometrics and biochemical studies. Multivariate regression analysis was employed to explore the association between parameters. The study population had an average age of 19.9±1.6 years with 74.7% being women. Of the participants, 35.7% were overweight, 9.1% were obese and 10.3% had central obesity. Additionally, 20.3% exhibited hyperinsulinemia (>15 U/mL) and 32.7% presented insulin resistance (>2.5). Vitamin C hypovitaminosis (< 29 µM) was presented in 37.0% of the population and 7.0% showing deficiency (< 8.5 µM), and 54,5% having elevated levels of protein carbonylation (>1.34 nmol/mg protein) Glycemia and plasma lipids were altered in less than 12% of the population. Insulin resistance was associated to body compo-sition, triglycerides and free fatty acids levels, and tobacco, alcohol and sugar consumption. Re-garding oxidative parameters, vitamin C hypovitaminosis correlated with low consumption of vegetable, and protein carbonylation was associated with the consumption of fish and processed foods.