Prevalence of adverse cardiometabolic health markers in UK undergraduate university students: an observational cohort study

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Savage, MJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2922-3681, Procter, EL ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1321-5463, Hennis, P ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8216-998X, Price, AG ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4457-8744, Magistro, D ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2554-3701 and James, RM, 2025. Prevalence of adverse cardiometabolic health markers in UK undergraduate university students: an observational cohort study. BMJ Open, 15 (4): e089771. ISSN 2044-6055

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-089771

Abstract

Objectives: The prevalence of adverse cardiometabolic health markers has increased substantially in UK young adults, and university students now make up a significant proportion of this population. Their health-related behaviours are poorer than age-matched normative data, and students’ anthropometric outcomes deteriorate during their university career. The influence of university on cardiometabolic health markers is unclear, and men and students of Minoritised Ethnicity are often under-represented in student health research. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of adverse cardiometabolic health markers in undergraduate university students and assess differences between genders, ethnic groups and year of study.

Design: Observational cohort study.

Setting: A higher education institution in Nottingham, UK.

Participants: Three independent cohorts of undergraduate university students (total n=1,299) completed five physiological tests and provided demographic information. One-way ANOVAs assessed differences between year of study and ethnic groups, and paired samples t-tests assessed differences between genders.

Main outcome measures: Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist to hip ratio (WHR), waist to height ratio (WHtR), blood pressure (BP) and glycated haemoglobin concentrations (HbA1c).

Results: 34.5% had overweight or obesity, 7.6% had a ‘very high’ waist circumference, 11.0% had a high WHR, 25.5% had a high WHtR, 12.7% were classified as hypertensive and 3.0% had an HbA1c ≥42 mmol/mol, indicating impaired glucose regulation. Differences between year groups were present for diastolic BP and HbA1c (p<0.01). Gender and ethnic group differences (p<0.05) were present for all variables other than BMI (gender) and diastolic BP (gender and ethnic group).

Conclusion: Overall, these data demonstrate the prevalence of adverse cardiometabolic health markers in UK undergraduate university students, highlighting differences between year groups, genders and ethnic groups. These findings should be considered when developing strategies to promote healthy lifestyles in higher education.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	BMJ Open
Creators:	Savage, M.J., Procter, E.L., Hennis, P., Price, A.G., Magistro, D. and James, R.M.
Publisher:	BMJ
Date:	April 2025
Volume:	15
Number:	4
ISSN:	2044-6055
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-089771 DOI 2435401 Other
Rights:	© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	06 May 2025 12:23
Last Modified:	06 May 2025 12:23
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53531