Habits, lifestyles and Sociality. A cluster analysis of Italian University Students

The analysis of health determinants in the student population can be useful in raising awareness on safe living conditions in new generations. The selection of specific biomedical markers, like advanced glycation end products (AGEs), and the analysis of social behaviors can support lifestyle choices evaluation. A questionnaire, containing an anamnestic section, a physical activity evaluation section, and a sociological section, was administered to a total of 110 students from two Italian universities, selected from the Faculty of Science of Movement and from the Faculty of Medicine. In addition, all subjects recruited in this study underwent to an AGEs accumulation assessment through skin autofluorescence. A non-hierarchical cluster analysis was performed on the collected data allowed the identification of two group of students: group 1 mainly consisted of male subjects from the Faculty of Science of Movement, characterized by an active lifestyle and a rather detached affective family condition; group 2 largely consisted of female subjects from the Faculty of Medicine, more sedentary and with stable relationships. The data analysis confirmed the correlation between low AGEs levels and healthy lifestyles, but at the same time underlined divergences between students from different Faculties.