Introduction:

To design strategies of prevention, control and treatment of chronicnon transmissible diseases in students, it’s necessary to know the behavior of these and the risk factors to which they are exposed.

Objective:

To compare the changes in the prevalence of risks of chronic diseases in students of the National Autonomous Universisty of Mexico (Universidad Autónoma de México [UNAM]) as they make their way from high school to college.

Material and methods:

Information from the survey of integral valorization of health that the General Board of Medical Services carried in 2007 and 2010 was compared. The information regarded alcohol and tobacco consumption, physical and sports activity, somatometric changes and the presence of high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, cancer and overweight in the students and their direct family.

Results:

593 students participated, 69.6 were women. The BMS changed in three years from 22.3 to 23.4 (P<0.001) in men and from 22.1 to 22.8 (P<0.001) in women. The frequency of high blood pressure changed from 1.54 to 1.69%, the alcohol and tobacco consumption was increased in three years, 32 and 7.6% respectively. Men resulted to be more physically active than women. (P<0.05); in three years the practice of soccer decreased in 21.7% and the practice of running 23%. In family members the prevalence of high blood pressure increased from 24.1 to 30.4%; obesity from 27.6 to 31.3% and diabetes mellitus type 2 from 12.8 to 16.2% with P<0.01. Alcohol consumption from 11.4 to 13.3% and tobacco consumption from 24.5 to 24.9%.

Conclusions:

The increase in risk factors in students and the chronic diseases in their family members indicate a higher risk profile. This is the reason why it is important to promote healthy conducts and to form the youth as agents of change so they can have influence in the reduction of damage in them and their family members.

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