Sociodemographic and behavioral factors associated with overweight in Brazilian adolescents – 2015

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the sociodemographic and behavioral factors associated with overweight in Brazilian adolescents. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional and analytical study with a sample of 10,926 schoolchildren aged 13 to 17 years who participated in the National School-based Health Survey (PeNSE) in 2015. Overweight was considered the dependent variable and the independent variables were the sociodemographic and behavioral aspects (food consumption, physical activity and sedentary behavior). The data were analyzed in IBM r SPSS r software , version 21.0, using procedures from the Complex Samples Module . The variables that showed a significant association with the outcome were subjected to multivariate logistic regression to adjust the Odds Ratio (ORaj). RESULTS: The prevalence of overweight was 23.7% among the adolescents surveyed, showing a significant association with: living in the South region (ORaj = 1.40; 95%CI 1.15-1.71), being 13 to 15 years old (ORaj = 1.26; 95%CI 1.08-1.30), living with more than three people (ORaj = 0.82; 95%CI 0.72-0.94), mother with incomplete higher education (ORaj = 1.53; 95%CI 1.08-2.18), consumption of vegetables greater than or equal to five days (ORaj = 1.23; 95%CI 1.08-1.40) and consumption of sweets up to four days (ORaj = 1.21; 95%CI 1.05-1.39). CONCLUSION: The significant association between overweight and younger age of students presents a worrying scenario since unhealthy habits are being incorporated earlier and earlier in individuals’ lives, causing deleterious effects in the medium and long term.