What Determine Physical (In)Activity In Brazilian Adolescents?

Abstract

Increases in physical inactivity has being pointed as one of the most relevant public health problems, especially among youth. Once physical (in)activity is a multifactorial trait, determined by different variables, such as biological and environmental, understanding the role of these variables in youth physical activity (PA) guidelines compliance seems to be of relevance, especially in Brazilian context, given the diversity observed among its region. PURPOSE: To describe differences in adolescent’s PA guidelines compliance among Brazilian regions and to investigate the determinants related to these differences. METHODS: Data comes from the National Adolescent School-based Health Survey (PENSE). Sample comprises 99570 Brazilian students (51.7% girls), enrolled in the 9th grade of Elementary School (mean age 14.29±0.93y). Information related to daily PA guidelines compliance was self-reported (based on the number of days, in last week, adolescents were engaged in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous PA), as well as mother educational level; further, school context information (school size and availability of sports court) was obtained. Logistic regression analysis was computed in SPSS 24, with a significance level of 95%. RESULTS: More than 2/3 of the adolescents did not comply the PA guidelines on any given day of the week; more, the North region presented the highest compliance percentage (9.8%), followed by the Midwest (9.6%), South (8.6%), Southeast (8.3%), and Northeast (7.8%) regions. Regarding predictors of PA guidelines achievement, boys (OR: 3.33, p<0.001), older adolescents (OR: 1.08, p<0.001), those with mother with higher educational level (OR: 1.33, p<0.001), and those enrolled in schools without sports court (OR: 0.92, p=0.007) were more prone to be active than girls, young adolescents, those with mothers with lowest educational level, and those enrolled in schools with sports court, respectively. No significant result was found for school size (p = 0.558). CONCLUSIONS: Sex, age, mother educational level, and the presence of sports court at school were significant predictors for compliance of PA guidelines among Brazilian adolescents. These results reinforce that biological and environmental characteristics, namely school context, play important roles in youth health habits.