Prevalence of and factors associated with overweight among university students from Rio Branco, Acre - Brazil

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with overweight among university students from the city of Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 1,104 students (mean age: 24 years) from Rio Branco, Acre. Overweight was used as the dependent variable. The following independent variables were studied: socioeconomic variables (gender, age, teaching institution, period of study, marital status, income, household members, living with other people, parent's education level, and working or not); self-reported health and morbidity variables (health perception, hypertension, diabetes, and altered cholesterol); lifestyle variables (physical activity, watching television, computer use, smoking, and alcohol consumption). The nutritional status was classified based on body mass index. Univariate analysis was performed using Pearson's chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test. Variables with a p value