Introduction:

Nutritional status reflects energy balance between food intake and physical activity, thus healthy eating habits should be promoted in the work environment.

Objective:

To characterize the nutritional status and cardiovascular risk of workers from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá Campus) and to determine the factors associated with the presence of overweight or obesity in this population.

Materials and methods:

Cross-sectional study conducted between August 2017 and June 2018 in 131 workers. A bivariate analysis was performed in order to determine the association between the presence of overweight or obesity (Ov/Ob) and the variables considered using Pearson's chi-square and chi-square for linear trend tests, calculating prevalence ratios (PR) with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals; a significance level of p<0.05 was considered.

Results:

Ov/Ob and cardiovascular risk were observed in 61.83% of the participants. Belonging to socioeconomic strata 1 and 2 was a risk factor for Ov/Ob (PR=1.8, 95%CI: 1.12-2.89), while having postgraduate studies (PR=0.6, 95%CI: 0.37-0.96) and seniority <10 years in the institution (PR=0.65, 95%CI: 0.43-0.98) were protective factors. A positive linear correlation was found between Ov/Ob and age (p=0.01), as well as a negative correlation between Ov/Ob and educational level (p=0.01) and socioeconomic stratum (p=0.00). Sex, marital status, and position were not significantly associated with Ov/Ob.

Conclusion:

The high prevalence of Ov/Ob is evidence that the university should promote healthy lifestyles among its workers, particularly in those who have worked for more than 10 years in the institution and those with a lower socioeconomic stratum.

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