Comparative study on the body mass index between various groups of Mexa-se [move] program participants

Abstract

The BMI of populations is one of the methods considered as easy to be applied and with low cost; in addition to that, it generates indexes to identify groups needing nutritional intervention. This work purpose was to compare the body mass index (BMI) between subjects from various groups that practice physical activities on Unicamp's Mexa-se [Move] Program (2010 to 2016), in which 205 subjects were assessed, both genders and various age ranges, observing data such as weight, height, age and genders. The tests were carried out during this period, covering groups from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. In order to measure the body weight, a digital weighing scale HBF-214 (Omron) was used, for height, a stadiometer (WCS), calculating BMI through formula (kg)/height² (m²). In this study, the male gender was represented by 62 subjects and the female gender by 143 subjects. From 205 subjects (41.17%), they presented BMI ranging from 25.0 to 29.9 kg/m², rated as overweight; 33.95% were rated as obesity I; 18.36% average obesity II and 9.38% obesity III in the sum of 07 groups. In this work, a high prevalence of inviduals with overweight and obesity I was observed (75.12%). This information can orientate the initiative to prepare Nutritional Education campaigns through Cecom and Unicamp in order to promote actions to adopt healthy life habits, once there are already physical activity initiatives at the university.