Cross-Sectional and Epidemiological Study
Prevalence of physical activity among adolescents in southern Brazil

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Abstract

Objetive

The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of low physical activity levels and to identify related factors (sociodemographic, lifestyle and body weight status) in adolescents.

Methods

The study included 1103 students aged 14–19 years from city of São José/SC, Brazil. Physical activity was assessed using a questionnaire that classified adolescents into those who meet recommendations and those who do not meet recommendations. Independent variables were gender, age, monthly household income, maternal education, balanced diet, number of physical education classes, sleep/day, tobacco use, excessive alcohol use, screen time and weight status. Binary logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals.

Results

Prevalence of inadequate levels of physical activity was 77.2%. Older students and those with lower monthly family income were more likely to have inadequate levels of physical activity. Female adolescents and older students were more likely to be sufficiently active compared to male and younger adolescents. Adolescents who sleep more hours/day were more likely to be insufficiently active.

Conclusion

Efforts to increase levels of physical activity should be focused on older adolescents and those with lower monthly family income.

Introduction

The practice of regular physical activity in adolescents promotes better indicators in relation to physical fitness, bone health and biomarkers of cardiovascular and metabolic health (WHO, 2015). In contrast, the failure to meet physical activity practice recommendations is associated with dyslipidemia, diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure (WHO, 2015). In addition, in 2008, 9% of all premature deaths of individuals of all age groups worldwide have been directly associated with insufficient levels of physical activity (Lee et al., 2012).

Several surveys have shown high prevalence of insufficiently active adolescents (Al Subhi et al., 2015, Kann et al., 2014, Peltzer, 2010). In survey conducted in ten countries of the Eastern portion of the Mediterranean, the prevalence of adolescents who did not meet recommendations regarding the practice of moderate or vigorous physical activity per week (≥5 days a week) was 81.0% (Al Subhi et al., 2015). In survey on the African continent, gathering information from eight countries, the prevalence of adolescents who did not meet recommendations regarding the practice of moderate or vigorous physical activity (≥5 days a week) was 85.8% (Peltzer, 2010). In the United States, the prevalence of adolescents who did not meet recommendations regarding the practice of moderate or vigorous physical activity (≥5 days a week) was 52.7% (Kann et al., 2014)). In Brazil, a nationwide survey identified prevalence of 79.8% of adolescents who did not meet recommendations (300 min per week) regarding the practice of physical activity (BRASIL, 2013), indicating that as seen in other countries, the prevalence of insufficiently active adolescents in Brazil is high.

Individual aspects such as sociodemographic factors have been studied in literature and, in general, it was found that increasing age, being female, low economic level and low maternal education level were associated with insufficient levels of regular physical activity (Al Subhi et al., 2015, Cureau et al., 2016). In addition, individual aspects of lifestyle were also associated with insufficient practice of physical activity in adolescents (de Oliveira et al., 2012, Garaulet et al., 2011, Health and Council, 2009, Rom et al., 2012). Inadequate diet (Garaulet et al., 2011), fewer physical education classes and fewer hours of sleep/day (Garaulet et al., 2011), smoking and excessive alcohol use (Health and Council, 2009, Rom et al., 2012), excessive time in front of electronic devices (de Oliveira et al., 2012), and overweight/obesity (Garaulet et al., 2011) are factors that were associated with insufficient levels of practice of physical activity in adolescents.

Although the correlated health benefits of meeting the recommendations of physical activity practice are explicit, the prevalence of adolescents (13–15 years) physically inactive worldwide is 80%, considering the recommendation of at least 60 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity (WHO, 2015). Another aspect that should be taken into account is the fact that the increasing burden of chronic diseases in low- and middle-income countries requires greater public health efforts aimed at increasing physical activity (WHO, 2009). Health disorders resulting from noncompliance with recommendations of practice of physical activity in adolescence usually manifest throughout adult life; however, their development seems to begin later in childhood and adolescence (Sawyer et al., 2012). Moreover, although several studies have investigated factors associated with insufficient levels of physical activity (Al Subhi et al., 2015, BRASIL, 2013, Kann et al., 2014), the number of adolescents who do not meet minimum recommendations of practice of physical activity is growing, which reinforces the need for the continued monitoring of this population in order to encourage actions to promote the practice of physical activity and reduce economic costs for treatment of health disorders associated with insufficient levels of physical exercise (Lobelo et al., 2014), since physical inactivity is the leading cause of death worldwide (WHO, 2009).

The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of inadequate levels of practice of physical activity and related factors (sociodemographic, lifestyle and body weight status) in adolescents from a city in southern Brazil.

Section snippets

Methods

This school-based, cross-sectional and epidemiological study was carried out in 2014 in the city of São José/SC, southern Brazil. The city has Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.809, with life expectancy at birth of 77.81 years, per capita income of R$ 1.157,43 and GINI index of 0.44 (United, Nations, 2013).

The study population consisted of 5182 public high school students aged 14–19 years from the city of São José, distributed into 11 eligible schools and 170 high-school classes. The sampling

Results

Of the 1132 students analyzed, 29 were excluded from the analysis because they failed to answer questions regarding the practice of physical activity, resulting in 1103 students being included in the study.

Of the total evaluated, the majority were female (54.5%) aged 16–17 years (57.7%), monthly family income from two to ten minimum wages (68.4%) and low education maternal (56.2%). Eight out of ten students did not have a balanced diet (84.5%). Approximately six out of ten students had two

Discussion

The main results of this study were that the prevalence of insufficiently physically active students was 77.2%. It was also found that older students and those with lower monthly family income were more likely of being insufficiently active. Interaction between sex and age group was also found, in which older and female individuals were more likely to be insufficiently physically active when compared to males and younger individuals. Adolescents sleeping more hours/day were less likely to be

Conclusions

It could be concluded that approximately eight out of ten adolescents showed insufficient levels of moderate or vigorous physical activity. Subgroups of adolescents who were more likely to have insufficient levels of physical activity were older adolescents and those whose families had lower monthly income. Older girls were more likely to have sufficient levels of moderate or vigorous physical activity compared with younger boys. It was also found that adolescents who slept less were more

Conflict of interest

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding sources

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

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