Actividad física y composición corporal en estudiantes de enfermería de la universidad Técnica del Norte 2023

Obesity at any stage of life is a risk factor for chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). One of the causes is physical inactivity. The objective of the study was to determine physical activity and body composition in nursing students at the University Técnica del Norte in 2023. It was a descriptive, cross-sectional, and quantitative study; a convenience sample of 74 rotating internship students in the nursing program was used to whom a survey on sociodemographic data was applied to them, and the validated instrument was the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. In addition, a nutritional assessment was applied to identify the body mass index, percentage of body fat, and percentage of muscle mass. The most important results were the following: the majority of women, all of whom correspond to the young adult age group, 39.9% perform low physical activity or are sedentary, 51.35% from excessive malnutrition, 87.8% have high adiposity levels, 52.7% have decreased muscle mass. In conclusion, an inverse relationship was found between physical activity, BMI, weight and percentage of body fat; the higher the value of these data, the lower METS expenditure per week was observed; in contrast to the percentage of muscle mass, the more severe it is, the lower the expenditure of METS spend per week.