IJCS | Volume 32, Nº6, November / December 2019

626 Pimentel et al. Nutritional status and vegetarians Int J Cardiovasc Sci. 2019;32(6):623-634 Original Article semivegetarians, ovo-lacto vegetarians, vegans or omnivores. In addition, they were asked which food items they excluded from their diets (fish, red meat, poultry, eggs and dairy) based on the SVB definition of the diet types. Individuals classified as vegetarians (or subgroups), were also asked the reasons for becoming a vegetarian and how long they had been following this type of diet. Sociodemographic and clinical variables: participants were asked about their age (in years), educational attainment, marital status and health conditions (presence of any disease at the interview). Life style variables: practice of physical exercise (physically active or inactive), according to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), smoking habits (yes or no), number of meals/day (three or less meals/day; more than three meals/day); sleeping hours (eight or less hours/day/ more than eight hours/ day) and use of vitamins and supplements (yes or no). Variables of nutritional status: nutritional status was assessed by BMI. For weight measurement, volunteers were asked to stand in the middle of the platform of an electronic scale (Welmy ® , model R-110, 150 kg capacity and 100 g accuracy). Height was measured using a portable stadiometer (Estad ® - Alturexata, 0.35 m – 2.13 m). All measurements were made with participants barefoot and wearing light clothes. 21 For analysis of body composition, WC was measured at the level of the umbilicus, using a non-elastic, retractable tape (Sanny ® ). Nutritional status was classified according to the WHO classification for BMI 21 individuals were classified as normal or altered nutritional status if they had a BMI of 18.5 – 24.9 kg/m 2 or > 24.9 kg/m 2 , respectively. WC was classified according to the risk of obesity-related complications, by gender. AWC ≤ 80 cm for women and < 94 cm for men was considered normal, and a WC > 80 cm for women and > 94 cm for men considered altered or indicator of risk. 1 Biochemical variables: for biochemical analysis, concentrations of total cholesterol (TC) and cholesterol fractions were measured using the automated enzymatic method. All procedures were conducted in a clinical analysis laboratory. The following cut-off values were used to classify the variables as normal or altered – TC > 200 mg/dL, LDL-c > 100 mg/dL, HDL- cholesterol < 40 mg/dL for men and < 50 mg/dL for womenm and triglycerides (TG) > 150 mg/dL. Statistical analysis Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS software version 20.0. Sociodemographic data, characteristics of vegetarian diet, lifestyle data and data of nutritional status were expressed as proportion and mean ± standard deviation. Normality of data distributionwas tested by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and the chi-squared test used to compare differences in proportions. Comparisons of means were performed using the Student’s t-test for normally distributed variables or theMann-Whitney test for variables without normal distribution. Data were not matched, since only one measure was taken from the sample unit, and the study had a cross-sectional design, with no intervention. Continuous variables with normal distribution (WC, TC, HDL, LDL) were expressed as mean and standard deviation, whereas those without a normal distribution (weight, BMI, glycemia, insulin, HOMA-IR, TG) were expressed as median and interquartile range (1 st quartile and 3 rd quartile). Categorical variables (type of diet, sex, educational attainment, smoking status, marital status, physical activity, number of meals per day, number of sleeping hours, vitamins/supplements intake) were presented as absolute numbers and percentages. The level of significance was set at 5%. Ethical aspects The present study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Sao Paulo School of Public Health (approval number 2260). Results Ninety-six volunteers were studied, 56 vegetarians and 40 omnivores. Most of participants were women (n = 60, 63%), adults (33.2 years ± 7.1 years), with high educational attainment (n = 66, 69% with higher education and postgraduate study), non-smokers (n = 91, 96%), and lived with a partner (n = 54, 56%). Despite a high percentage of sedentary individuals (n = 43, 45%), median BMI was 22.7, 21.3 – 25.0 kg/m 2 (i.e., normal) and participants were considered healthy, since 70% of them did not have any disease at the interview. Table 1 describes the general characteristics of the study population. Tables 2 and 3 present descriptive data of both groups (vegetarians and omnivores), stratified by sex.