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Changes in weight and body composition across five years at university: A prospective observational study

OBJECTIVES: The transition from high school to college or university has been shown to be a critical period for weight and fat gain. To date, no European data on weight and fat gain over the full trajectory of college or university are available. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to in...

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Autores principales: Deliens, Tom, Deforche, Benedicte, Chapelle, Laurent, Clarys, Peter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6853334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31721793
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225187
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author Deliens, Tom
Deforche, Benedicte
Chapelle, Laurent
Clarys, Peter
author_facet Deliens, Tom
Deforche, Benedicte
Chapelle, Laurent
Clarys, Peter
author_sort Deliens, Tom
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: The transition from high school to college or university has been shown to be a critical period for weight and fat gain. To date, no European data on weight and fat gain over the full trajectory of college or university are available. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate weight and fat gain among Belgian university students from freshman through senior year of university. METHODS: In this prospective observational study, a total of 340 university students were measured six times, i.e. at baseline (start of the first academic year) and at the start of the second semester of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth academic year. Objective measurements included body weight, height, body mass index (BMI), fat%, fat mass, fat free mass and waist circumference. Multilevel modelling was used to assess anthropometric changes over time according to sex. RESULTS: From freshman through senior year of university, individual weight changes ranged from -5.2 to +15.7kg, and respectively 77.4% and 69.3% of students showed increases in BMI and fat%. Stronger increases in weight and BMI were found for males (5.7kg; 1.6kg/m(2); both p<0.001) than females (2.2kg; 0.8kg/m(2); both p<0.001) over the 4.5 year measuring period. Similarly, waist circumference increased more in males (4.7cm; p<0.001) than in females (1.0cm; p<0.001). In contrast, females (2.5%; p<0.001) showed a higher increase in fat% than males (1.0%; p = 0.019). Across sexes, the highest weight and fat gains were found during the first semester and during the final year of university. CONCLUSIONS: Belgian university students gain a significant amount of body weight and body fat from freshman through senior year of university. Similar to the first semester, more pronounced increases in weight and fat were observed during the final year of university. Interventions aiming at preventing weight gain at university should not only focus on freshmen but also on senior students.
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spelling pubmed-68533342019-11-22 Changes in weight and body composition across five years at university: A prospective observational study Deliens, Tom Deforche, Benedicte Chapelle, Laurent Clarys, Peter PLoS One Research Article OBJECTIVES: The transition from high school to college or university has been shown to be a critical period for weight and fat gain. To date, no European data on weight and fat gain over the full trajectory of college or university are available. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate weight and fat gain among Belgian university students from freshman through senior year of university. METHODS: In this prospective observational study, a total of 340 university students were measured six times, i.e. at baseline (start of the first academic year) and at the start of the second semester of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth academic year. Objective measurements included body weight, height, body mass index (BMI), fat%, fat mass, fat free mass and waist circumference. Multilevel modelling was used to assess anthropometric changes over time according to sex. RESULTS: From freshman through senior year of university, individual weight changes ranged from -5.2 to +15.7kg, and respectively 77.4% and 69.3% of students showed increases in BMI and fat%. Stronger increases in weight and BMI were found for males (5.7kg; 1.6kg/m(2); both p<0.001) than females (2.2kg; 0.8kg/m(2); both p<0.001) over the 4.5 year measuring period. Similarly, waist circumference increased more in males (4.7cm; p<0.001) than in females (1.0cm; p<0.001). In contrast, females (2.5%; p<0.001) showed a higher increase in fat% than males (1.0%; p = 0.019). Across sexes, the highest weight and fat gains were found during the first semester and during the final year of university. CONCLUSIONS: Belgian university students gain a significant amount of body weight and body fat from freshman through senior year of university. Similar to the first semester, more pronounced increases in weight and fat were observed during the final year of university. Interventions aiming at preventing weight gain at university should not only focus on freshmen but also on senior students. Public Library of Science 2019-11-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6853334/ /pubmed/31721793 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225187 Text en © 2019 Deliens et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Deliens, Tom
Deforche, Benedicte
Chapelle, Laurent
Clarys, Peter
Changes in weight and body composition across five years at university: A prospective observational study
title Changes in weight and body composition across five years at university: A prospective observational study
title_full Changes in weight and body composition across five years at university: A prospective observational study
title_fullStr Changes in weight and body composition across five years at university: A prospective observational study
title_full_unstemmed Changes in weight and body composition across five years at university: A prospective observational study
title_short Changes in weight and body composition across five years at university: A prospective observational study
title_sort changes in weight and body composition across five years at university: a prospective observational study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6853334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31721793
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225187
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