Prevalência de hábitos de vida em escolares de um Município do Sul do Brasil

Prevalence of life habits in students of a city of southern Brazil

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of lifestyle habits – food intake, weekly physical activities, excess weight, alcohol
consumption and cigarette smoking among adolescents in the rural area of Barão do Triunfo, Rio Grande do Sul State.
Methods: The participants were 377 schoolchildren between 10 and 18 years old, enrolled in the 5th to 8th grades. The
outcomes rated as unhealthy lifestyle habits were: lack of weekly physical activities for recreation and point-to-point trips
in their daily lives, food consumption measured by compliance with the ten steps to a healthy diet, excess weight assessed
by Body Mass Index, cigarette smoking and consumption of alcoholic beverages, all self-reported for the previous month.
Results: The prevalence of reported smoking and drinking during the past 30 days among these youngsters reached 6.7%
(tobacco) and 27% (alcohol), respectively; 45% were ranked as physically inactive and 24.8% were overweight. Compliance
with the steps to healthy eating was weak across the board, except Step 4 – weekly consumption of rice and beans – which reached 82.3% for these youngsters. Conclusion: These adolescents presented a high level of unhealthy lifestyle habits.
Rural youngsters are encouraged to adopt healthy lifestyles, through planning strategies that boost individual compliance
and engagement, thus enhancing the quality of life and lessening future problems for this segment of the population.