HEALTH RISK BEHAVIOR OF ADOLESCENT SCHOLARS

Abstract

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to describe health risk behaviors among adolescents from secondary education in public schools in a city in Brazilian Northeast. Epidemiological cross-sectional, population-based study with a simple random sample. For the data, we used structured validated questionnaires. For data analysis, we used the chi-square Pearson test, with significance level of 5%. It has been found that physical inactivity is associated with the sex, age and studying shift. Tobacco consumption is significantly associated with sex, age, shift studying and alcohol consumption shift to studying, and age. As for poor dietary habits, consumption of fried foods is associated with shift in studying and sweets and sodas to shift on studying and age. Found a high prevalence of risk behaviors among adolescents, focused on policies needed health of this population.