Comportamentos de risco à saúde em universitários no norte de Minas Gerais: prevalência e fatores associados

Abstract

This cross-sectional study aimed to estimate the prevalence Health Risk Behaviors (HRB) among university students, as well as to identify factors associated with these HRB and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey - College (YRBS-C). A probabilistic sample was used by cluster, composed of 902 students from the Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros, MG, Brazil. A questionnaire was used, which included the sociodemographic (gender, age, skin color, civil status, work and economic class) and academic characteristics (graduation area, campus, study shift and graduation period). To investigate HRB, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey for university students (YRBS-C) was used. HRBs related to personal safety, violence, suicide intent, smoking, consumption of alcoholic beverages and illicit drugs, sexual behavior, food and physical activity were analyzed. The following psychometric properties of the YRBS-C were analyzed: construct validity (convergent and discriminant) and reliability (internal consistency and reproducibility analysis). The variables were described by absolute and relative frequencies. Prevalences of HRB and their respective 95% confidence intervals were estimated. To identify factors associated with HRB, crude and adjusted Prevalence Ratios (PR) were estimated using the Poisson Regression model. The instrument presented discriminant validity, internal consistency and reproducibility, however, the convergent validity indicators were not satisfactory for the most part. The internal consistency was adequate (Cronbach's alpha > 0.70) for the general scale and for most of its domains. Regarding reproducibility, 62% of the analyzed items presented substantial or excellent agreement (Kappa ≥ 0.61) and 80% of domains, excellent agreement (ICC ≥ 0.75). The estimated prevalences for HRB were: low consumption of fruits and vegetables (98.1%), low fruit consumption (87.7%), nonperformance of resistance exercise (82.4%), non-elongation (73.6%), non-performance of aerobic exercise (71.2%), non-use of condoms during sexual intercourse in the last month (63.1%), non-walking or cycling (62.1%), Consumption of sausages (47.9%), alcohol consumption (45.7%), steering drinks (39.6%), non-use of seat belts (34.7%), abusive consumption of alcoholic beverages (29.2%), consumption of sweets (17.2%), suicide planning (9.1%), consumption of illegal drugs (8.9%), low level of physical activity (7.9% ), suicide planning (5.5%), smoking in the last 30 days (5.4%), non-use of helmets (5.3%), involvement in fights (4.2%), experience of forced sexual intercourse (3.5%), suicide planning (2.8%), daily smoking (1.7%) and low consumption of green and vegetable salads (1.6%).The following variables were significantly associated with HRB: male gender (abusive consumption of alcoholic beverages, consumption of illicit drugs and involvement in fights); age up to 21 years (consumption of sausages and involvement in fights); marital status with partner (involvement in fights and irregular use of condoms); Other areas of non-health graduation (non-performance of aerobic exercise); economic classes A or B (consumption of sausages and consumption of illicit drugs). The instrument presented discriminant validity, internal consistency and reproducibility. A high proportion of university students exposed to HRB was identified, with emphasis on inadequate food intake with low fruit consumption and consumption of sausages, irregular use of condoms during sexual intercourse and consumption of alcoholic beverages, as well as simultaneous exposure to two or more risk behaviors. The observed results can contribute to the development of health promotion programs in the university environment mainly, directed to identified subgroups of risk, such as male gender and young people up to 21 years of age.