Prevalence of Lifestyle Risk Factors among Students of Vocational High Schools

Abstract

Background: A systematic study of the lifestyle of student youth making up the future economic and reproductive potential of the country is necessary to assess health risk factors and to develop appropriate measures of health promotion and disease prevention. Objective: To establish the prevalence of lifestyle risk factors among students of vocational high schools. Materials and methods: The prevalence of lifestyle risk factors was studied based on the results of anonymous surveys of vocational school students conducted in the city of Krasnodar in the years 2012 (n = 200) and 2022 (n = 224). Results: In 2022, lifestyle risk factors were found in 88.4 % of the respondents, which was 8.6 % less than in 2012 (p = 0.002). The most common factors among the students were imbalanced diet (80.4 %), low physical activity (45.5 %), and smoking (37.0 %). Over the ten years, the proportion of smokers decreased by 15.0 % (p < 0.001) while that of students with high physical activity and a healthy diet increased by 11.5 % (p = 0.02) and 7.1 % (p = 0.05), respectively. The specialty-specific analysis showed that alcohol consumption prevailed among woodworking machine operators (57.5 %), gas and electric welders (50.0 %), and assistant secretaries (41.2 %); imbalanced nutrition was a frequent finding in gas and electric welders, cutters (93.3 % each), and tailors (90.0 %); low physical activity was reported by 80 % of tailors, 53.3 % of pastry chefs, and 50 % of assistant secretaries; poor sleep duration was common among auto mechanics (63.3 %), assistant secretaries (44.1 %), and electric and gas welders (20.0 %). The prevalence of tobacco smoking was found to decrease by 40.2 % among assistant secretaries (p = 0.003), by 29.3 % among cutters (p = 0.028), and by 20.0 % among pastry chefs (p = 0.05). Conclusion: The high prevalence of lifestyle risk factors observed requires both comprehensive and systematic health promotion among adolescents and creation of conditions aimed at improving the culture of a healthy lifestyle, developing sustainable motivation for maintaining health and skills of healthy living.