Cardiorespiratory fitness and cardiometabolic risk factors in schoolchildren from Colombia: The FUPRECOL Study

The objectives of this study are to investigate the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and cardiovascular risk factors in schoolchildren and to evaluate the degree of association between overall and abdominal adiposity and cardiorespiratory fitness. A total of 1,875 children and adolescents attending public schools in Bogota, Colombia (56.2% girls; age range of 9–17.9 years). A cardiovascular risk score (Z-score) was calculated and participants were divided into tertiles according to low and high levels of overall (sum of the skinfold thicknesses) and abdominal adiposity. Schoolchildren with a high level of overall adiposity demonstrated significant differences in seven of the 10 variables analyzed (i.e. systolic and diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides, triglycerides/HDL-c ratio, total cholesterol, glucose and cardiovascular risk score). Schoolchildren with high levels of both overall and abdominal adiposity and low cardiorespiratory fitness had the least favorable cardiovascular risk factors score. These findings may be relevant to health promotion in Colombian youth.

Prevalence and factors associated with dysmenorrheal in health science students

Introduction: Dysmenorrhea has a prevalence between 60 and 93%. Different factors have been associated with it, such as age at menarche, body mass index, exercise, smoking and maternal history of dysmenorrhea, among others. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, based on an anonymous survey applied to a random sample of 127 women from the school of medicine and psychology at the Universidad Del Rosario. Results: The prevalence of  dysmenorrhea was 73%. 67% of participants presenting with menstrual pain, reported having taken pain relief medication (66.7% self medicated). 32.5% of respondents with dysmenorrhea were absent from their academic or social work, with a percentage of school absenteeism due to pain of 74.5% in at least one day. The risk of dysmenorrhoea was 2.36 times higher in women who had mothers with this history (OR = 2.36, 95% CI 1.03 to 5.40). No associations with other factors were found. Conclusions: Dysmenorrhea is a disease with a high prevalence and significant impact on school absenteeism. Maternal history of dysmenorrhea was the only factor positively associated in this study.