OBJECTIVE To validate an instrument designed to assess health promotion in the school environment.METHODS A questionnaire, based on guidelines from the World Health Organization and in line with the Brazilian school health context, was developed to validate the research instrument. There were 60 items in the instrument that included 40 questions for the school manager and 20 items with direct observations made by the interviewer. The items’ content validation was performed using the Delphi technique, with the instrument being applied in 53 schools from two medium-sized cities in the South region of Brazil. Reliability (Cronbach’s alpha and split-half) and validity (principal component analysis) analyses were performed.RESULTS The final instrument remained composed of 28 items, distributed into three dimensions: pedagogical, structural and relational. The resulting components showed good factorial loads (> 0.4) and acceptable reliability (> 0.6) for most items. The pedagogical dimension identifies educational activities regarding drugs and sexuality, violence and prejudice, auto care and peace and quality of life. The structural dimension is comprised of access, sanitary structure, and conservation and equipment. The relational dimension includes relationships within the school and with the community.CONCLUSIONS The proposed instrument presents satisfactory validity and reliability values, which include aspects relevant to promote health in schools. Its use allows the description of the health promotion conditions to which students from each educational institution are exposed. Because this instrument includes items directly observed by the investigator, it should only be used during periods when there are full and regular activities at the school in question.

OBJECTIVE Evaluate the school environments to which ninth-year students are exposed in Brazil and in the five regions of the country according to health promotion guidelines.METHODS Cross-sectional study from 2012, with a representative sample of Brazil and its macroregions. We interviewed ninth-year schoolchildren and managers of public and private schools. We proposed a score of health promotion in the school environment (EPSAE) and estimated the distribution of school members according to this score. Crude and adjusted odds ratios (OR) were used, by ordinal regression, to determine the schoolchildren and schools with higher scores, according to the independent variables.RESULTS A student is more likely to attend a school with a higher EPSAE in the South (OR = 2.80; 95%CI 2.67–2.93) if the school is private (OR = 4.52; 95%CI 4.25–4.81) and located in a state capital, as well as if the student is 15 years of age or older, has a paid job, or has parents with higher education.CONCLUSIONS The inequalities among the country’s regions and schools are significant, demonstrating the need for resources and actions that promote greater equity.

Contamination of enteral diets represents a high risk of compromising the patient's medical condition. To assess the microbiological quality and aseptic conditions in the preparation and administration of handmade and industrialized enteral diets offered in a hospital in the Valley of Jequitinhonha, MG, Brazil, we performed a microbiological analysis of 50 samples of diets and 27 samples of surfaces, utensils, and water used in the preparation of the diets. In addition, we assessed the good handling practices of enteral diets according to the requirements specified by the Brazilian legislation. Both kinds of enteral diets showed contamination by coliforms and Pseudomonas spp. No sample was positive for Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella spp. On the other hand, Listeria spp. was detected in only one sample of handmade diets. Contamination was significantly higher in the handmade preparations (p < 0.05). Nonconformities were detected with respect to good handling practices, which may compromise the diet safety. The results indicate that the sanitary quality of the enteral diets is unsatisfactory, especially handmade diets. Contamination by Pseudomonas spp. is significant because it is often involved in infection episodes. With regard to aseptic practices, it was observed the need of implementing new procedures for handling enteral diets.

OBJECTIVE:To analyze the relationship between the health promotion conditions in schools and the consumption of alcohol and other drugs by students.METHODS:This is a cross-sectional study with a probabilistic sample of 3,464 students aged 12 to 17 from all schools of the cities of Lajeado and Sapiranga, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and 53 managers from the same schools; the data was collected in 2012. Reports of the use of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs in 2012 were used as outcomes, and the health promotion score in the school environment was used as the exposure of interest. We submitted the data to multilevel analysis.RESULTS:The prevalence of the annual use of tobacco was 9.8% (95%CI 8.8-10.8), alcohol was 46.2% (95%CI 44.5-47.8), and other drugs was 10.9% (95%CI 9.9-12.0). In the crude analysis, only the use of tobacco was associated with less health promoting schools (OR = 1.89, 95%CI 1.16-3.09) when compared to those with better conditions. This association lost statistical significance in the adjusted analysis (OR = 1.27, 95%CI 0.74-2.19).CONCLUSIONS:The effects of the school environment on the use of drugs, especially tobacco and alcohol, are manifested mainly by the individual and family conditions of the adolescents.

No abstract