SIMULTANEITY OF HEALTH RISK BEHAVIORS AMONG BRAZILIAN ADOLESCENTS ACCORDING TO RACE/SKIN COLOR
Adolescents; Adolescent Health; Risk factors; Ethnic groups; Race and Health; Social differences; Epidemiological surveys.
Introduction: adolescence is a complex stage of biopsychosocial transformations and risk behaviors promoted at this stage tend to remain in adulthood. Alcohol use, smoking, obesity and sedentary lifestyle are factors that, when started in adolescence, are related to the health of adults and are associated with the development of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) throughout life. Individuals who live in precarious socioeconomic situations have worse health conditions when compared to those with better economic situations, with greater disadvantage due to sex, ethnicity, and education, among others. And in Brazil, race/skin color is a marker of social disparities, being considered a predictor of health outcomes. Objective: to analyze the simultaneity of health risk behaviors of Brazilian adolescents according to race or skin color. Methods: cross-sectional study with data from the National School Health Survey (2015). The study sample consisted of 102,301 participants and the simultaneity of risk factors (physical inactivity, precarious consumption of fruits, vegetables and vegetables, consumption of alcohol and cigarettes) by differences in race/color was analyzed. The crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) were calculated, with their respective 95% confidence intervals and p values, using Poisson Regression, in an analysis adjusted for gender, age and maternal education. Results: In 2015, 102,301 schoolchildren were interviewed, 43.05% of whom declared themselves brown, 36.14% white, 13.38% black, 4.11% yellow and 3.29% indigenous. In the sample, the prevalence of physical inactivity was 38.42% (95%CI 37.9-38.95), of cigarette use was 5.55% (95%CI 5.29-5.83), of precarious consumption was 80 .68% (95%CI 80.24-81.12) and the use of alcohol was 23.78% (95%CI 23.31-24.25). The prevalence of simultaneity of the four risk factors among adolescents was of 1.43% (95%CI 1.29-1.58) and the most frequent simultaneity was physical inactivity and precarious consumption of fruits, vegetables and vegetables (25.11% 95%CI 24.64-25.58). The prevalence of simultaneity of the four factors was higher among indigenous people (PR 1.77; 95%CI 1.00-3.13) and the combination of physical inactivity, alcohol and cigarette use was significant among browns (PR 2.11 ; 95%CI 1.05-4.24) when compared to whites. Conclusions: there was a higher prevalence of simultaneous risk factors for chronic conditions among self-declared browns and indigenous peoples when compared to whites. This inequity may be a reflection of the inequitable social structure present throughout the Brazilian historical process, and this situation may impact the health conditions in the life cycles of these populations.