Temporal trend of simultaneous risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases: National School Health Survey 2009, 2012, 2015

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the temporal trend of simultaneous occurrence of behavioral risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases in Brazilian school adolescents. Methods: Ecological time-series study that analyzed data from the three editions of the National Survey of School Health with students in the 9th year of public and private schools. Cluster analysis was performed to identify the simultaneity of the following factors: irregular consumption of fresh or minimally processed foods, regular consumption of processed and ultra-processed foods, insufficient level of physical activity during leisure time, consumption of alcoholic beverages, use of cigarettes and illicit drugs. The cluster trend was tested using simple linear regression. Results: The sample was composed of 173,310 school adolescents. Sixty-four possible combinations were evaluated, resulting in the formation of six clusters. The grouping formed by all factors showed the highest ratios observed/expected prevalence in the last two years of the series. The highest ratios were observed for combinations in which alcohol and cigarettes were present. These substances integrated five of the six clusters. One of the groups (insufficient level of physical activity during leisure time + consumption of alcoholic beverages + use of cigarettes and illicit drugs) had an upward trend throughout the series. Conclusion: The trend analysis showed four out of six clusters remaining stable throughout the series, which shows that the factors are persistently present among school adolescents.

Ultra-processed food consumption and children and adolescents’ health

“…A temporal trend analysis on the behavioral risk factors for chronic NCDs in Brazilian school adolescents between 2009, 2012 and 2015 10 indicated that the regular consumption of processed and ultra-processed foods was the second risk factor for diseases, second only to little physical activity; the authors also found a tendency towards a decrease in the participation of UP foods in the diet, together with an increase in irregularity in the consumption of fresh and minimally-processed foods.…”

“… The findings support the role of ultra-processed foods in the obesity epidemic in Brazil. Araújo et al 10 (2022) Ecological 173,310 school adolescents, from PeNSE 2009, 2012 and 2015. To analyze the temporal trend of the simultaneous occurrence of behavioral risk factors (RF) for NCDs in Brazilian school adolescents.…”

“…This review included studies that share the objective of analyzing and discussing the effects of dietary patterns and the relationship with chronic NCDs in children and adolescents. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 …”

“…Araújo et al (2022) 10 conducted a study based on data collected in three periods – 2009, 2012 and 2015 with Brazilian schoolchildren; the data show that, in addition to the regular consumption of ultra-processed foods, the level of physical activity was insufficient. Similar results were found in two other studies carried out with Brazilian adolescents – one of them used secondary data from PeNSE (2015) and the other conducted a cohort with adolescents from the city of Cuiabá.…”

“…Physical inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle constitute risk factors for the development of chronic NCDs and, even though the findings of this review are scarce, there are studies that indicate multiple factors that, when combined, contribute to unfavorable health outcomes. 10 …”