Asociación entre comportamientos de riesgo y sobrepeso en adolescentes: análisis de clases latentes

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the cluster of lifestyle behaviors among Brazilian adolescents and to identify the association of these clusters with overweight. Information related to food consumption, TV time and physical activity were used, from a sample of 14141 adolescents of both sexes, aged between 11 and 17 years, from the National School Health Survey (2015), who were split into three classes: physically active (FA), risky behavior (CR), and physically inactive with healthy eating (AI). Results showed that girls and older adolescents have less chances to be overweight when compared to boys and younger adolescents, respectively. Moreover, subjects classified as CR have less chances of being overweight, whereas those classified as AI are more prone to be overweight compared to those belonging to FA class. We conclude that the adoption of healthy habits seems to be of relevance in the expression of overweight, because although the high prevalence of "unhealthy" diet among subjects from the CR class, their physical activity levels are similar to their peers from the FA class, which may mitigate the impacts unhealthy behaviors associated with food consumption.