Prevalence and factors associated with poor self-assessed health in Brazilian adolescents: National School Health Survey 2019.

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the prevalence and factors associated with poor self-assessed health among Brazilian school-aged adolescents aged 13 to 17 years.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study using data from the 2019 National School Health Survey (PeNSE). Crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (APR) were estimated by logistic regression. Analyses were performed in Stata 16.

RESULTS

Factors associated with poor self-rated health were: being male (APR 0.75; 95%CI 0.72-0.79); aged 16-17 years (APR 1.13; 95%CI 1.08-1.18); Black (APR 1.08; 95%CI 1.01-1.14), Brown (APR 1.10; 95%CI 1.05-1.16), or other (APR 1.13; 95%CI 1.04-1.22); eating breakfast (APR 0.84; 95%CI 0.80-0.87); consumed alcoholic (APR 1.12; 95%CI 1.07-1.18); perceiving oneself as overweight (APR 1.34; 95%CI 1.27-1.42) or underweight (APR 1.12; 95%CI 1.06-1.18); engaging in >300 minutes of physical activity per week (APR 0.85; 95%CI 0.80-0.89); consuming fruits (APR 0.86; 95%CI 0.81-0.92); having one or more friends (APR 0.80; 95%CI 0.74-0.86); having ever sought health services (APR 0.92; 95%CI 0.88-0.96); missing school due to health problems for 1-3 days (APR 1.31; 95%CI 1.24-1.39) or ≥4 days (APR 1.64; 95%CI 1.54-1.74); feeling worried (APR 1.09; 95%CI 1.02-1.15), sad (APR 1.33; 95%CI 1.24-1.41), that no one cares about them (APR 1.22; 95%CI 1.16-1.29), irritated (APR 1.19; 95%CI 1.10-1.25), or that life is not worth living (APR 1.38; 95%CI 1.32-1.45).

CONCLUSION

Sociodemographic, behavioral, and mental health factors were associated with poor self-rated health among Brazilian adolescents.