Evaluation of obesity associated with health risk factors in Brazilian public school

• Published in: Obesity medicine Vol. 19; p. 100223
• Main Authors: Corazzini, Roseli, Morgado, Flávio, Gascón, Thaís Moura, Affonso Fonseca, Fernando Luiz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-09-2020
• Subjects: Adolescents; Obesity; Overweight; Public schools; Risk factors; Z-BMI; Obesity; Z-BMI; Public schools; Adolescents; Risk factors; Overweight
• ISSN: 2451-8476; 2451-8476
• DOI: 10.1016/j.obmed.2020.100223

This study aims to evaluate overweight and obesity associated with health risk factors, hereditary or related to lifestyle, in public school's adolescents in the ABC region, São Paulo, Brazil.
This is a cross-sectional quantitative study that included adolescent students of public schools. Within the selected schools, students from each high school grade were randomly picked, to analyze the association of Z-BMI with family obesity and behavioral and dietary habits.
From 1,227 evaluated students, 51.6% were boys and 48.4% were girls. The median age, weight and height were 16 years, 61 kg and 1.68 m respectively. The mean Z-BMI was 0.32 ± 1.10. Most of the population is eutrophic (71.6%), being also important the prevalence of overweight (20.0%) and obesity (6.4%). Girls are more eutrophic than boys. The most significant factors associated with obesity, expressed by Z-BMI, were: the working student, obese people in the family (mainly grandparents and mother), alcohol consumption, smoking, feeling sad every day and dietary habits (less than five meals a day, eating out, eating fast, without breakfast).
The current study showed that several factors can be associated with obesity in adolescence, and the necessary measures to avoid obese adults, such as combating alcoholism and smoking, encouraging optimism and healthy eating habits.
•Schools should propose curricular planning that includes projects or learning situations for the resolution of real problems regarding risk factors so that health concerns involving the school community can be prevented.•Such actions would trigger fundamental public policies targeting school adolescents, which could reverse the obesity epidemic among this population.•In conclusion, the current study showed that several factors (family obesity, behavioral factors and dietary habits) can be associated with obesity in adolescence, and the necessary measures to avoid obese adults, such as parental awareness, combating alcoholism and smoking, encouraging optimism and healthy eating habits.