Consumo de álcool entre estudantes de escolas públicas da Região Metropolitana do Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil

Association between simultaneity of health-risk behaviours and self-rated health in Brazilian adolescents

Introduction

This study examined the association between simultaneity of four health-risk behaviours, namely, low levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (insufficient MVPA: <420 min/week), tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and excessive television (TV)–(>2 h/d of TV viewing) and self-rated health (SRH) in Brazilian adolescents.

Methods

We used data of 100,551 adolescents from the National School Health Survey, a national cross-sectional study carried out in 2015. Association between simultaneity of health risk behaviours (i.e. the ratio between observed and expected prevalence rates) and SRH was examined using logistic regression models.

Results

The majority of the participants were female (51.9%) and 14 years of age (50.6%), and 26% of the participants’ SRH ranged from ’average’ to ’extremely poor’. Those who engaged in the following combinations of health-risk behaviours had higher odds of worse SRH than their healthier counterparts: insufficient MVPA and tobacco use (odds ratio—OR: 2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.4 to 3.0); insufficient MVPA and alcohol consumption (OR: 1.6, 95%CI: 1.3 to 1.9); insufficient MVPA and >2 h/day of TV viewing (OR: 1.3, 95%CI: 1.1 to 1.6); insufficient MVPA, tobacco use and alcohol consumption (OR: 2.1, 95%CI: 1.7, to 2.7); and insufficient MVPA, alcohol consumption and >2 h/day of TV viewing (OR: 1.6, 95%CI: 1.4 to 2.0).

Conclusions

Insufficient MVPA, alcohol consumption, and other health-risk behaviours were associated with worse SRH in Brazilian adolescents.

Parental supervision and alcohol use among Brazilian adolescents: analysis of data from National School-based Health Survey 2015

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the relation between parental supervision and sociodemographic factors and alcohol use by Brazilian adolescents.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional study with data from National School-based Health Survey (PeNSE) 2015, which included 16,608 adolescents aged 13 to 17 years, students from Brazilian public and private schools. Variables related to alcohol use, sociodemographic factors and parental supervision were evaluated. In order to analyze the relation between sociodemographic variables, parental supervision and use of alcohol among adolescents, prevalence ratios stratified by sex were used.

RESULTS

It was observed that 61.4% of the adolescents had tried alcohol, 27.2% had a drunken episode in their lifetime, 9.3% have had problems with alcohol and 29.3% reported alcohol use in last 30 days. The lack of parental supervision was associated with increased use of alcohol. The proportion of alcohol use was higher for girls, and also among those who were older than 16 years, worked, did not live with one or both parents, and lived in the South, regardless of sex.

CONCLUSION

The results showed early alcohol experimentation and occurrence of problems due to its use among Brazilian adolescents. In addition, the lack of monitoring by parents and guardians shows a risk of alcohol use in this age.

Involvement of school students in fights with weapons: prevalence and associated factors in Brazil

Background

Violence, as well as other behaviors, is often intensified during adolescence and early adulthood. The objective of this study is estimate the prevalence of Brazilian school students involvement in fights with weapons and to analyze the associated factors.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study using data from the National School Student Health Survey conducted in 2012 with 9^th grade elementary school students attending 2842 schools in all 27 Brazilian Federative Units. The outcome studied was involvement in fights with firearms and/or cold weapons in the 30 days prior to the interview. Poisson regression was used to estimate the prevalence ratios and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI). The analyses were stratified by sex.

Results

Fifty seven thousand and eighty nine female students and 52,015 male students were included; the prevalence of their involvement in fights with weapons was 7.2 (95 % CI 6.9–7.5) and 13.8 (95 % CI 13.4–14.3), respectively. In the adjusted analysis the factors associated with male student involvement in fights with weapons were: being older, working, having smoked a cigarette, consumed alcoholic beverages and illicit drugs recently, insomnia, not having any close friends, skipping classes without parental supervision, having suffered aggression from a family member, reporting feeling unsafe on the way to or from school and/or at school. The same associated factors were found among female students in addition to not living with their father and/or mother and having suffered bullying. There was no association with type of school in either sex.

Conclusion

Involvement in fights with weapons was greater among older male students. Health-risk behaviors, mental health characteristics, parental supervision and context of violence also showed association with the outcomes.

Alcohol consumption among Brazilian Adolescents according to the National Adolescent School-based Health Survey (PeNSE 2012)

OBJECTIVE

To describe the prevalence of alcohol consumption among Brazilian students and identify the sociodemographic factors associated alcohol consumption in the last 30 days.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study with a cluster sample of 109,104 9th grade students in Brazilian public and private schools in 2012. The prevalence and 95% confidence intervals of the indicators of alcohol consumption were analyzed.

RESULTS

Of the students analyzed, 50.3% (95%CI 49.0 - 51.6) experimented one dose of alcoholic beverages or more. The consumption of alcohol in the last 30 days was 26.1% (95%CI 24.5 - 27.7), and there was no difference in prevalence between students from public and private schools. Drunkenness episodes were reported by 21.8% (95%CI 21.1 - 22.5) of the students. The perception of students about the negative reaction of their family if they came home drunk occurred in 89,7% (95%CI 89,6 - 89,9) of cases, and 10% (95%CI 8.9 - 11.1) of them reported having problems with their families or friends because they had been drinking. Among adolescents aged less than 14 years old, the first alcoholic drink intake was predominantly at 12 to 13 years old. The most common way to get a drink was at parties, with friends, buying in them in supermarkets, stores or bars and at home. The consumption of alcohol in the last 30 days was less frequent among boys, increasing with age.

CONCLUSION

The study demonstrates the extension of alcohol as a problem, making it important to advance in measures such as the improvement of protective legislation for children and adolescents and stricter enforcement in alcohol sales.

HEALTH RISK BEHAVIOR OF ADOLESCENT SCHOLARS

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.

Contextual variables associated with psychosocial adjustment of adolescents

This study investigated associations of contextual variables of risk (stressful events and exposure to community violence), variables of protection (family environment, connectivity to the school and community perceptions) and demographic variables (gender and age) with indicators of psychosocial adjustment (self-esteem, involvement in illegal activities and alcohol use in past month) among adolescents. The participants were 685 students (61.5% girls) aged between 12 and 18 years (M = 15.10, SD = 1.52) of public schools in southern Brazil. They answered a questionnaire with 77 questions and an inventory for assessment of family relationships. Logistic regression analyses indicated that the negative perception of family environment, poor connectivity to the school and exposure to community violence were associated with low self-esteem. Involvement in illegal activities was associated with low connectivity to school, stressful events, exposure to community violence and male sex. Finally, alcohol use/month was associated with negative perception of the community, community violence, stressful events, and particularly at the ages of 15-16 years.

Relação entre violência física, consumo de álcool e outras drogas e bullying entre adolescentes escolares brasileiros

O objetivo deste estudo foi identificar a associação entre o consumo de álcool e outras drogas e o bullying com o envolvimento em situações de violência física entre adolescentes de 13 a 15 anos, em escolas públicas e privadas das capitais brasileiras e do Distrito Federal. Foram analisados os dados da Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar (PeNSE) de 2009. Para análise dos dados foi utilizada a regressão logística. A prevalência de envolvimento em situações de violência física foi 12,9% maior no sexo masculino. Em ambos os sexos, foram observadas associações entre violência física e ser vítima de bullying com o uso de drogas ilícitas e efeito potencializado do consumo de álcool e drogas. Para o sexo masculino, o uso de álcool mostrou associação significante com violência física. Morar o pai ou ambos os genitores na residência apresentou associação inversa para violência física no sexo feminino. O conhecimento de fatores associados à violência física entre adolescentes é importante para auxiliar estratégias de promoção da saúde e da cultura de paz, rompendo com a ideia de que a violência entre adolescentes é algo banal e esperado.

[Personality factors as predictors of alcohol consumption by university students]

This study aimed to verify differences in personality factors between abstainers and drinkers and between individuals with higher versus lower levels of alcohol consumption in the previous three months, and to test the predictive power of factors for any lifetime alcohol consumption and for at least monthly alcohol consumption. A total of 169 university students participated, of whom 66.7% were women, with a mean age of 21.2 years. Lifetime alcohol consumption was 90.1%; 42.3% had consumed at least twice in the previous three months; and 57.7% consumed alcohol at least monthly. Participants with less frequent consumption in the previous three months showed higher mean scores for personality factors involving socialization and achievement, while those that consumed more frequently scored higher on extroversion. A predictive model showed that increments in extroversion contributed to increased odds of drinking alcohol, while increments in achievement decreased the odds of drinking. Personality characteristics were able to distinguish between different groups of drinkers and predict the frequency of alcohol consumption.