Physical Fitness, Body Composition, Blood Pressure, and Blood Metabolic Profile among Young Guatemalan Adults

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Abstract
We assessed the distribution of several risk factors related to health: muscular strength (handgrip strength), cardiovascular endurance (step test), flexibility (sit and reach test), anthropometry and body composition, blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, lipid profile, and hemoglobin in a cohort of Guatemalan adults who were born in four rural villages between 1962 and 1977. By 2002 approximately 32% had migrated to Guatemala City or elsewhere in the country. Men are more physically fit and leaner than women. Fatness, poor physical fitness, and metabolic syndrome are highly prevalent in women living in both rural and urban areas. Risk profiles worsen with increasing age. Men who migrated to Guatemala City have lower physical fitness, greater fatness and systolic blood pressure, and worse lipid profile than men who still live in their original villages. Such a pattern was not evident in women, except that blood pressure was higher in urban women than in women who lived in their original villages.