College Kids: A Health Crisis Waiting To Happen?
College students are in prime physical condition. Or are they?
The good news is they don’t smoke much. The bad news is…
… that’s about the only good news.
Even the students themselves were shocked by how poor their health was.
Data collected from over 800 undergraduates at the University of New Hampshire revealed that:
- About 33% of the students were obese or overweight…
- 60% of the men had high blood pressure…
- Over 66% of the women weren’t getting enough calcium, iron or folate in their diets…
- 23% of the men and 34% of the women engaged in less than 30 minutes of physical activity each day…
- 66% of the men and 50% of the women had at least one risk factor for metabolic syndrome…
- 8% of the men had metabolic syndrome…
Metabolic syndrome is the presence of 5 risk factors for developing heart disease and diabetes. Those 5 factors are high blood pressure, high triglycerides, low HDL “good” cholesterol, high blood glucose, and excess abdominal fat.
The other surprise is that the University of New Hampshire students may be slightly healthier than the national norm. The national rate of obesity and overweight for college students is almost 40%.
This is one of the few studies to look at the general health of the college-age population in the U.S. The results were unexpected, to say the least.
But one thing is clear: if these students don’t change their unhealthy behaviors soon, they could end up with serious, chronic health problems.
Technorati Tags: overweight, obesity, college students, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, high triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, high blood glucose, abdominal fat
June 19th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
If this isn’t a wakeup call, what is? 60% of college age men have high blood pressure? That’s a middle-age condition. What are we doing to our kids?
June 19th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
We’re not doing anything to them, Mags. They’re old enough by college to take responsibility for themselves. They should be anyway. Maybe that’s the problem. Everyone babies them too much.
June 19th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I used to get more than 30 minutes a day of exercise just walking to my classes in college. What are these kids doing - taking a moving sidewalk to class?
June 19th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
I think the kids are spending too much time on the Internet, just like the rest of us, and it’s starting to show.
June 19th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Too many video games. Too much internet. Get outside and do something!
June 19th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I think college is a primetime for kids to develop poor eating habits. How many college students are there that subsist on junk food and soda?
When I was in college they always talked about the “freshman 15.” These were 15 pounds every freshman supposedly gained.
Excellent post!
June 19th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I’ve only been out of college for a couple of years, so I know what it’s like to be there. Sure there are a lot of kids who are overweight… just like everywhere… I mean kids are overweight in elementary school and middle school and high school… so why wouldn’t we be overweight in college. Nobody eats right in college. I used to skip breakfast all the time, get a burger for lunch and have pizza for dinner, but I don’t eat like that anymore because I’m not in college anymore. It’s just a part of growing up. I’m not saying people should be fat or shouldn’t do something if they’re overweight and it’s affecting their health, but I think everyone just thinks about it more now and reports on it more now. You said this was one of the few studies that was ever done on general health in college. Then how do we know that other generations were so much healthier? If someone had done a study back then, maybe those college students would have had high blood pressure and all those other things that make up metabolic syndrome.
June 19th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
They’re setting themselves up for heart disease and other serious problems, but I’m not sure it will wait until they hit middle age.
June 19th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
I don’t think we’ll have much success changing the eating habits of college kids, but I think we should try to get them to exercise more. Colleges should think about putting a phys ed requirement into the curriculum. It doesn’t have to be anything difficult-dancing, swimming, playing Nintendo Wii… that’s one they’ll like.
June 19th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Thanks for the info. Good post.