Objective

To describe the relationship between obesity and proinflammatory variables in the student population of the University of Quindío.

Methods

A cross-sectional descriptive study in which 155 students participated. Firstly, the glycemia was made by conventional methods, the insulinemia and the cytokines were measured by ELISA; IMC and HOMA-IR index were calculated. Then, the information was analyzed in the Statgraphics software to establish relationships between the variables were established through multiple regression and thus statistically significant difference was considered when the p value was ≤0.05.

Results

The prevalence of obesity by BMI was of 4.6%, of overweight 20.5% and of abdominal obesity by waist circumference was of 18.5%. The average insulinemia was 8.5 pUI/ml ±6.4 and the HOMA-IR index was 1.75. 18.5% had insulin resistance. Interferon gamma was found at 4.6±12.0 pg/mL, IL-6 at 5.1±15.5 pg/mL and TNF alpha at 3.2±11.1 pg/mL. The greatest variation explained (R2) is presented by insulinemia, the waist/hip index and the Homa-IR index. IL-6 was the cytokine that presented the greatest variation explained.

Conclusions

There is a relationship between inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 with the waist/hip index, diastolic pressure, insulinemia and the Homa-IR index.