Avalon University

School of Medicine
By Avalon University School of
Medicines

Modern Lifestyle of North

American and Antillean Students
We are pleased to inform you that Avalon University School of
Medicine, Curacao is conducting a research project in collaboration
with the Psychology department of the University of Alberta, Canada.
The topic is about the Modern Lifestyle of North American and
Antillean students.
The focus of the project is to highlight the rate and dangers of
obesity amongst the student population, and how obesity affects the
health.
There are many diseases and health related issues that are related
to obesity such as cardiovascular diseases, strokes, high blood
pressure, diabetes, cancer, osteoarthritis, sleeping problems (e.g.
sleep apnea), etc. It is imperative to observe the student population
in terms of obesity in order to provide adequate preventive
measures for the diseases and health issues mentioned above.

Modern Lifestyle of North

American and Antillean
Students
The knowledge of population differences in dietary
lifestyles in relation to obesity would greatly contribute
to current public health improvement initiatives as well
as for future studies.

Modern Lifestyle of North

American and Antillean
Students

Modern Lifestyle of North

American and Antillean
Students
Curaao is an unique place in this world, and the

universities in Curaao have students from the

neighboring islands such as Bonaire, Aruba and the
other Antillean islands whom are in pursuit of a college
degree.

This was beneficial in this research project for the

reason of having a large Antillean population as
participants. Likewise, the University of Alberta is one
of the largest schools in Canada that provides an
education for students across all of Canada, thus
representing the Canadian population for this research
project. Criteria for resident of each country will be
defined as a person who has lived in the country for a
minimum of 5 years.

Modern Lifestyle of North

American and Antillean
Students

The objective is to measure Body Mass Index (BMI),

Waist-Hip Ratio (WHR) and waist circumference (WC)
as an indicator of the population risk of developing
cardiovascular diseases.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), the
normal range of BMI is 18.5-24.9, overweight is 2529.9 and obese is above 30; WHR of 0.7-0.8 for
women and 0.9-1.0 for men is considered optimal; and
finally, males with WC of 94cm or more and females
with 80cm or more are considered to be at higher risk
of developing obesity-related health problems such as
the ones mentioned above.

Modern Lifestyle of North

American and Antillean
Students
Collaboration details:
Avalon has been in contact with one of the research
professors in University of Alberta (Psychology
department) and he has agreed to work together with
us in this study.Avalon will show priority in discipline.
Nothing is more important than a well-crafted and
well-articulated discipline policy.

Modern Lifestyle of North

American and Antillean
Students
Materials and Methods
Two populations will be compared in this study, the
Canadian and the Antillean population. The variables will be
compared to find a correlation i.e. does having a high BMI
mean having a high WHR or WC. Also, it would be useful to
find out if WC alone can be a good predictor of obesity as
opposed to WHR.
The differences between each population will be measured
and a conclusion will be made concerning the percentage of
the population that is at risk of developing CVD as measured
through BMI, WHR and WC for both populations. However,
since we are not considering other factors that could
contribute to the CVD risk, we will not be able to make any
causal relationships in this study. School of Medicine

Modern Lifestyle of North

American and Antillean
Students
The participant pool will consist of students

of
educational institutions in both locations i.e.
universities on the Island of Curacao and University of
Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. These populations will
serve as an sample population representative of the
Antillean and Canadian populations.

Based on the participant pool, our study will only show

data for ages 17 and over; we have decided to make
this representative of the average student population.
School of Medicine

Modern Lifestyle of North

American and Antillean
Students
BMI will be measured by dividing the weight by the
height measurements, WHR will be calculated by
dividing the waist circumference by the hip
circumference, measured with the use of a measuring
tape.

Avalon University School of

Medicine

For More Information Visit us Online:

avalonu.org
Avalon University
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Phone: 330-759-8008
Fax: 330-759-8041
E-mail: admissions@avalonu.org