Risk behaviors for the health of adolescents from High School - doi:10.5020/18061230.2009.p164

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the risk behaviors (smoking addiction, alcoholism, drug use and sexual risk behavior) of adolescents from High School. Methods: It was an analytical and cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 720 scholars (252 boys and 468 girls) from the age group of 16 to 17 years-old, from three public schools in Florianopolis/SC. The data was collected through two types of self administrated questionnaires; one for the parents and another one for the students, from March to December, 2005. The studied variables were legal and illegal drug use and sexual risk behavior. The descriptive statistics and the chi- squared test were used to carry out the data analysis Results: The beginning of risk behaviors occurred between 14 and 15 years old, for both genders. It was observed that 26 (3.6%) scholars drank alcohol regularly; 38 (5.3%) smoked daily; 66 (9.2 %) were drug users or had used drugs several times and 14 (2%) were drug dependents. Concerning to sexual risk behavior, 318 (44.5%) scholars had sexual risk behavior and from those, 97 (13.6%) did not always use condom. From the studied sample, 545 (76.5%) scholars did not present any risk behavior. Among risk behaviors, sexual risk prevailed (42.5%). Conclusion: The number of adolescents with risk behavior was not high. Nevertheless, there is a small proportion of adolescents that smoke, drink and do drugs and have sexual risk behavior. Thispoints out to the need of a bigger supervision and guidance for these students.