The Relationship between Lifestyle Factors and Body Compositionin Young Adults

Lovro Štefan, Marko Čule, Ivan Milinović, Dora Juranko and Goran Sporiš
Additional contact information
Lovro Štefan: Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Marko Čule: Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Ivan Milinović: Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Dora Juranko: Boutique Fitnes Studio “Vježbaonica”, Center for Recreationand Fitness, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Goran Sporiš: Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-11

Abstract: Background: Little is known of how lifestyle factors might influence on body composition parameters in young adults from Croatia. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the lifestyle factors and body composition in young adults. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, participants were 271 university students (59.0% of women). Body composition was measured by using bioelectric impendance analysis (BIA). Blood pressure and heart rate were measured according to standardized protocol and Mediterranean diet adherence (MD), physical activity (PA) and psychological distress (PD) were assessed with validated questionnaires. Results: Self-rated health (SRH) and PA were inversely associated with weight, body-mass index (BMI), fat-mass percentage and blood pressure in men and with weight, BMI, fat-mass percentage and heart rate in women. Higher levels of SRH and PA were positively associated with fat-free mass percentage in both men and women. Smoking was positively associatedwith BMI and fat-mass percentage in women and with heart rate in men. Alcohol consumption was positively associated with weight and BMI in women and fat-mass percentage and heart rate in men, yet inversely associated with fat-free mass percentage only in men. PD was positively associated with weight and blood pressure in men and with BMI, fat-mass percentage and blood pressure in women. Conclusions: Our study shows that higher levels of SRH, MD and PA are related with healthy body composition parameters in young adults. Special interventions and policies that enhance PA and MD and decrease substance use and misuse (SUM) and PD should be implemented within the university school systems.

Keywords: university students; body composition; substance use; physical activity; diet (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/8/893/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/8/893/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:8:p:893-:d:107499

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().