SOBREPESO Y OBESIDAD EN MUJERES EN EDAD FÉRTIL QUE USAN ANTICONCEPTIVOS EN EL CANTÓN SALCEDO

Abstract

The use of hormonal contraceptives is involved in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in women of childbearing age, after prolonged use of hormonal contraceptives. The objective of this research was to identify the relationship between the prevalence of overweight and obesity in women of childbearing age who use hormonal contraceptives in the Salcedo Canton of the Cemoplaf center, by means of anthropometric and dietary assessment and level of physical activity. By means of an observational, descriptive case-control study of 90 women, of whom 45 used contraceptives for more than 1 year, and 45 participants did not use contraceptive methods. To identify the characteristics of the population we used age, occupation, whether contraceptive methods were used, type and time of use, on the other hand, for the anthropometric assessment we used the Body Mass Index, cardiovascular risk, muscular area and fat area of the arm, for the dietary assessment and level of physical activity we used two questionnaires, the frequency of consumption according to the IASE healthy eating index and the international physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ). The results showed that 27.8% of the women who use contraceptives are overweight, 6.6% are obese, while 30.0% of the participants who do not use contraceptives are at an adequate weight. Cardiovascular risk is higher in women who use contraceptives with 24.4%, the diet index does not show a significance with the use of methods while the level of physical activity shows a significance of p=0.002. Therefore, the use of hormonal contraceptives over a period of time greater than 1 year is related to overweight and obesity in women of childbearing age, in the same way eating habits and the level of physical activity are involved in the development of these pathologies.