[Anthropometric evaluation of university students in Bogotá, Colombia]

Determining the nutritional condition of adult-aged undergraduate students from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá by using anthropometric indicators.

The information was collected between the second academic semester 2001 and the first one in 2004. Stratified sampling was used for determining sample size, proportional assignment being made by faculty. The sample consisted of 1865 students, most of them aged eighteen to twenty-five (48.3% were female and 51.7% were male).

The study presented 21.7% prevalence of poor nutrition, being overweight exceeding being underweight (12.4% cf 9.3%). The information collected about the anthropometry of the arm led to revealing a critical situation for males, especially regarding muscular reserve since more than 60% of them had a low or very low reserve classification, whilst this was 40% for females in the same classification.

The results concerning students being overweight and/or obese (11.1% and 1.3%, respectively) were lower than the results for the whole country provided by the 2005 National Nutritional Situation Survey (ENSIN) which gave 32.3% being overweight and 13.8% being obese. It should be stated that ENSIN was taken as reference as no similar national studies were available, even though this survey covered an older age-group. Eight out of ten adult Universidad Nacional de Colombia undergraduate students thus presented a suitable nutritional condition from the anthropometric point of view.