Background: Recent studies have demonstrated a strong association between physical activity, low level of cardiorespiratory fitness and the presence of cardiovascular risk factors.
Objective: Compare the level of physical activity, level of cardiorespiratory fitness and cardiovascular risk in students of medicine and physical education.
Methods: At the first phase, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to quantify the physical activity level of 126 students from the 7th and 8th semesters of the physical education and medicine courses. At the second phase, 40 students were randomly selected (20 from each course) to undergo cardiovascular risk assessment and cardiorespiratory fitness. The following data were assessed 1) arterial pressure; 2) body mass index (BMI); 3) percentage of fat (electrical bioimpedance); 4) abdominal circumference (AC); 5) laboratory biochemical assessment; and 6) cardiorespiratory fitness (Kline's Test).
Results: The comparison of students of medicine and physical education, respectively, showed a higher frequency of individuals presenting: low level of physical activity (55% vs 15.0%; p = 0.008); pre-hypertension measured by SAP (80% vs 25.0%; p = 0.000) and by DAP (45% vs 5.0%; p = 0.003); overweight (50% vs 10.0%; p = 0.006); increased abdominal circumference (25% vs 0.0%; p = 0.017); increased total cholesterol (165 +/- 28 vs 142 +/- 28 mg/dl; p = 0.015); increased LDL-c (99 +/- 27 vs 81 +/- 23 mg/dl; p = 0.026); increased glycemia (81 +/- 8.0 vs 75 +/- 7.0 mg/dl; p = 0.013); lower cardiorespiratory fitness (48 +/- 8.0 vs 56 +/- 7.0 ml/kg/min; p = 0.001).
Conclusion: Students of medicine presented lower levels of physical activity practice, lower level of cardiorespiratory fitness and higher frequency of cardiovascular risk factors, when compared to Physical Education students.