Abstract

FREITAS, Ana Letícia Galvão et al. Influence of chronobiology in the nutritional state and in risk of cardiovascular disease in university students. Motri. [online]. 2018, vol.14, n.1, pp.103-108. ISSN 1646-107X.

Chronobiology is the science that studies the interaction between man and biological rhythms. One of his main goals is to study the temporal characteristics of living matter in all its levels of organization, which includes the study of circadian rhythms, which vary around 24 hours and can be important biochemical, physiological or behavioral events for survival. The sample was composed of 500 university students duly enrolled in the morning; afternoon and evening shifts of a private institution of higher education. The data corresponded to anthropometric measures such as weight, height, circumference of the arm, hip and waist to evaluate nutritional status and risk of cardiovascular disease and the application of a questionnaire that assessed participants' sleep habits. The distribution of BMI in the studied population had a predominance of Eutrophic, followed by Overweight and Slimness. The most prevalent chronotype was the Intermediate, followed by the afternoon chronotype. Regarding cardiovascular risk, it was verified that university students presented a distribution of 71.2% without risk of cardiovascular disease, 17.4% with a high risk of cardiovascular disease and 11.4% with a very high risk of cardiovascular disease. Although circadian rhythm hormones influence nutritional status, the present study did not find a positive correlation between these two variables. New studies should be done to correlate chronotype and nutritional status, aiming at improving health knowledge.

Keywords : chronobiology; circadian rhythm; anthropometry.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )