Qualidade de vida de adolescentes da rede pública de ensino estadual da cidade de Montes Claros – MG

Abstract

Adolescence is a period marked by intense mental, physical and social changes in peoples’ lives. Measuring the quality of life of this population is an important way to direct public resources and create specific health policies. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the quality of life of adolescents enrolled in the state public education system of Montes Claros County (MG) and to build an explanatory model focused on the quality of life of this population. A cross-sectional analytical epidemiological approach was herein adopted to investigate a population comprising 77,833 students from 63 schools that together represent four geographic regions of the county. Information about 635 adolescents in the age group 10-16 years was analyzed after sample calculation and the KIDSCREEN-27 questionnaire was applied to evaluate the quality of life of the selected adolescents. This thesis was divided in three different studies focused on specific aims. Study 1 aimed at evaluating adolescents’ selfperception about their quality of life, and about the relation between their quality of life and sex, family income and exercising. KIDSCREEN-27 was the instrument used to determine the variable “quality of life”, whereas a sociodemographic questionnaire was used to determine the other variables. Participants’ mean age was 13.82 years. There was statistically significant association (p < 0.05) between male sex and all dimensions assessed in the KIDSCREEN-27, except for “social support and peer group” and “school environment”. There was no statistically significant association between family income and quality of life, based on the KIDSCREEN-27 (p > 0.05), although there was statistically significant association (p < 0.001) between higher quality-of-life scores and exercising. Study 2 aimed at producing an artificial neural network to explain quality of life based on KIDSCREEN-27. The herein developed artificial neural network had four layers (10, 8, 4 and 1 neurons, respectively) and it was used to assess adolescents’ quality of life based on the mean of KIDSCREEN-27 responses. The neural network showed 98.96% accuracy and all KIDSCREEN-27 dimensions presented statistically significant association with sex and exercising, except for dimensions “social support and peer group” and “school environment”, which were not associated with sex. Study 3 aimed at analyzing the prevalent intake of healthy and unhealthy food, as well as factors associated with chronic non-communicable diseases in adolescents. Most adolescents were neither smokers (97.8%) nor consumed alcoholic beverages (92.4%); they self-rated their health as excellent, great or good (95.1%) and just over half of them used to exercise (59.5%). Based on the multiple analysis, only variables “age” (p = 0.014) and “alcohol consumption” (p = 0.040) were associated with unhealthy and healthy food intake. Data presented in this thesis can be used to support health promotion strategies applied to students in the age group 10-16 years. Measures such as improving the points of greater need and assisting the main risk groups (female sex, adolescents who do not exercise and who consume alcoholic beverages) can be taken into account to improve the quality of life of this population.