A nationwide school-based study of violence in Brazil (PeNSE, 2015)

What have adolescents in Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil, done to reduce their community violence exposure?

This study aims to identify the individual community strategies to avoid violence exposure most used by adolescents from public and private schools in the IX Administrative Region of Rio de Janeiro and investigate the profile of co-occurrence and its prevalence in specific population subgroups. This is a cross-sectional study with 693 individuals. A multidimensional questionnaire collected information regarding strategies to avoid community violence exposure and was self-completed in the classroom. The most used strategies were avoiding walking close to armed people (55.5%), avoiding walking alone (30.5%), and avoiding returning home at dawn (24.7%). Girls adopt more of all (concurrently) the four limiting behaviors to reduce their community violence exposure (53% vs. 32%). Notably, the adoption of such strategies differed by socioeconomic indicators and was higher among adolescents from lower-income households. These findings point to the high frequency of use of such strategies by adolescents, which may hinder and limit the full development of their social and cultural skills.

Social determinants of health associated with the experience of hunger among Brazilian adolescents

The aim of this study was to identify social determinants of health associated with the experience of hunger among school-age adolescents in Brazil. We conducted a cross-sectional study with a sample of 16,526 adolescents using data from the 2015 National School-based Student Health Survey. Experience of hunger was determined based on the answer to the question "In the last 30 days, how often have you been hungry because there wasn't enough food at home?" The social determinants of health were analyzed using Poisson regression with robust variance. The prevalence of the experience of hunger was 22.8% (95%CI: 21.9-23.7). The experience of hunger was directly associated with being male (PR = 1.12; 95%CI: 1.07-1.16); not being overweight (PR = 1.08; 95%CI: 1.04-1.13 ); irregular consumption of beans (PR = 1.20; 95%CI: 1.13-1.26), vegetables (PR=1.16; 95%CI: 1.09-1.22) and fruit (PR = 1.19; 95%CI: 1.13-1.24); body dissatisfaction (PR = 1.26; 95%CI: 1.18-1.35); and not regularly eating lunch or dinner with parents or guardians (PR = 1.41; 95%CI: 1.32-1.52). An inverse association was found between the experience of hunger and maternal education level and living in the Mid-West, Southeast and South. The findings show that the experience of hunger among Brazilian adolescents coexists with risky eating behaviors, body dissatisfaction, and social inequality.

General Versus Vocational Education in High School: Cross-Sectional Associations with Student's Health

BACKGROUND

The aim of the present study was to analyze the association between course type and health among high school students.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study with 675 Brazilian high school students. The independent variable was course type (general or vocational) and dependent variables were health characteristics. All information was obtained by a self-report questionnaire and the following health characteristics were analyzed: mental health, physical activity, sedentary behavior, food consumption, daytime sleepiness, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, aggression, and musculoskeletal symptoms. The prevalence ratio (PR) was estimated by Poisson regression.

RESULTS

Vocational students presented a higher prevalence in 7 of the 20 mental health symptoms analyzed (PR = 1.21-1.64), daytime sleepiness (PR = 1.39-1.71), and musculoskeletal symptoms in neck, shoulders, low back, and knees (PR = 1.31-1.41), and a lower likelihood of being physically active (PR = 0.59-0.70). Conversely, vocational students showed lower sedentary behavior on TV and videogames during the week (PR = 0.35-0.46), consumption of snacks, cookies, and crackers (PR = 0.56-0.72), and experiences of aggression (PR = 0.13-0.17), all P < .05.

CONCLUSIONS

High school can affect students' health distinctly, indicating that intervention programs and health monitoring should be specific to course type.

Social determinants of health associated with the experience of hunger among Brazilian adolescents

Abstract The aim of this study was to identify social determinants of health associated with the experience of hunger among school-age adolescents in Brazil. We conducted a cross-sectional study with a sample of 16,526 adolescents using data from the 2015 National School-based Student Health Survey. Experience of hunger was determined based on the answer to the question “In the last 30 days, how often have you been hungry because there wasn’t enough food at home?” The social determinants of health were analyzed using Poisson regression with robust variance. The prevalence of the experience of hunger was 22.8% (95%CI: 21.9-23.7). The experience of hunger was directly associated with being male (PR = 1.12; 95%CI: 1.07-1.16); not being overweight (PR = 1.08; 95%CI: 1.04-1.13 ); irregular consumption of beans (PR = 1.20; 95%CI: 1.13-1.26), vegetables (PR=1.16; 95%CI: 1.09-1.22) and fruit (PR = 1.19; 95%CI: 1.13-1.24); body dissatisfaction (PR = 1.26; 95%CI: 1.18-1.35); and not regularly eating lunch or dinner with parents or guardians (PR = 1.41; 95%CI: 1.32-1.52). An inverse association was found between the experience of hunger and maternal education level and living in the Mid-West, Southeast and South. The findings show that the experience of hunger among Brazilian adolescents coexists with risky eating behaviors, body dissatisfaction, and social inequality.