Al. Unden et al., PSYCHOSOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL-FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH SERUM-LIPIDS IN UNIVERSITY-STUDENTS, Social science & medicine, 41(7), 1995, pp. 915-922
Citations number
36
Categorie Soggetti
Social Sciences, Biomedical","Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath
The impact of psychosocial and behavioral factors on serum lipids was
examined in 46 male and 47 female students with a mean age of 23 years
. Subjects were recruited from the University of Stockholm and the stu
dy was performed with the Student Health Care Organization in order to
have a basis for intervention programs. Significant associations betw
een serum lipids and parental education, regularity of breakfast habit
s, nourishing eating, social support, depressive feelings and quality
of life are found. However, there is no consistent pattern for these a
ssociations in men and women. Thus, some associations are significant
for men and some for women. Women with parents having higher levels of
education had lower values of cholesterol, triglycerides and apo B, a
nd higher values of apo A-1 (representing the 'good' cholesterol) than
women whose parents were not highly educated. When controlling the as
sociations for confounding factors such as age, body mass index, physi
cal activity, coffee, alcohol, smoking habits, nourishing eating and q
uality of life, the associations were strongly confirmed. No similar a
ssociations were found in men. Men who reported low social support or
social integration and a low perceived quality of life showed a tenden
cy to higher levels of lipids compared to those who reported high inte
gration and quality of life. Regularity of dietary habits was found to
be associated to serum lipids in men, the greater the regularity, the
lower the lipid levels. The strongest association was found for regul
arity of breakfast habits. This association was also strongly signific
ant in the regression analysis after controlling for the described con
founding factors. A significant association between apo B only and bre
akfast habits was apparent in the regression analysis even in women.