Health risk behavior excels in high socioeconomic class among adolescents
International Journal of Development Research
Health risk behavior excels in high socioeconomic class among adolescents
Received 28th October, 2018; Received in revised form 19th November, 2018; Accepted 19th December, 2018; Published online 30th January, 2019
Copyright © 2019, Antônio Evaldo dos Santos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Objective: to estimate the prevalence of risk behaviors to health and its association with sociodemographic characteristics among adolescents. Materials and Methods: Socioeconomic information and health risk behaviors were collected from 2207 adolescents enrolled in public schools in Sergipe State, Northeastern, Brazil. Results: Females were associated with low levels of physical activity (PR=1.19; IC95%=1.15 – 1.24) and more than two hours watching TV (PR=1.07; IC95%=1.01-1.14). Males were associated with weapon carrying (PR female=0.28; IC95%=0.17-0.46), fights involvement (PR female=0.40; IC95%=0.33-0,49) and marijuana use (PR female = 0,55; IC95% = 0,32-0,93). The oldest group was associated with cigarette smoking (PR female=0,45; IC95%=0,33-0,63), drinking (PR female=0,71; IC95%=0,64-0,79), and marijuana use (PR female=0.53; IC95%=0,31-0,91). The highest socioeconomic status was associated with weapon carrying (PR=2.98; IC95%=1.06-8.35), fights involvement (PR=1.49; IC95%=1.05-2.12), and drinking (PR=1.68; IC95%=1.26-2.25). Conclusions: The study notes that males, older than 17 years and with high socioeconomic level were more exposed to risk behaviors to health. This study shows that there is association among the health risk behavior and high socioeconomic class in adolescents.
