Health diagnosis in freshmen at FES Iztacala-UNAM. A gender focus.

Abstract

Health is a process determined by biological, psychological, environmental, social and cultural factors, which according to the WHO, reflects a whole state of physical, mind and social human beings welfare.

The healthier population group, which uses fewer health services, is within a stage of development which corresponds to adolescence and youth. However, it also suffers the exposure to risk factors such as unsafe sex, tobacco consumption, alcohol and drugs, as well as the inadequate food intake and sedentary lifestyle; elements that determine health problems; such as chronic-degenerative diseases onset. In recent years, obesity and metabolic syndrome have been increased in adolescence where gender-defining conditions play an important role to mark its prevalence. The goal of this research was to identify disease risk factors and obesity prevalence which, from a gender perspective, are analyzed in freshmen at FES Iztacala. An exploratory and descriptive study was conducted on 2,709 students to whom a health card was applied, in addition to recording anthropometric measurements of each student. It was found that students have tendency towards overweight and obesity due to a family history of hypertension and obesity, which can lead to develop diseases of the metabolic syndrome more likely and mainly in medicine, psychology and dentistry female students. It is concluded that, developing health promotion and promotion programs from a gender perspective allows adequate physical development for the best academic performance of university students.