Descrição
GROWING UP HEALTHILY: RISK BEHAVIOURS ASSESSEMENT IN ADOLESCENCE
CONTEXT: Nowadays, teenagers are adopting different health lifestyles in nutrition habits, psychoactive substances addictives behaviours and physical activity areas. The project falls within philosophy from Countrywide Integrated Non Communicable Disease Intervention Programme, spread out by OMS.
AIM OF THE STUDY: To identify teenagers’ risk behaviours; to define risk factors, to assess teenagers’ health condition perception and to develop a health promotion program which will empower themselves to control their health determinants and will promote the acquirement of individual and social skills.
METHODOLOGY: This is a quantitative longitudinal research-action study conducted from 2005-2010, in schools from Coimbra (Portugal), comprising 216 students (10 to 17 years old).
To collect data we used a Questionnaire adapted from Health Behaviour at School Aged Children, which provide us biological (eg.: Body Mass Index), nutrition and pshysical activity habits and psycohactive substances addictives behaviours data. Data was supported by a statistic and epidemiologic descriptive analysis.
ANALYSIS AND SUMMURY OF KEY FINDINGS: The preliminary results showed us wrong eating habits. In addition, it was found sedentary leisure habits - 73% watch TV 3 to 4 hours/day and 83% spend 1 to 3 hours in front of the computer. However, 38% do physical exercise regularly.
Yet, 9.4% of the teenagers were in a Pre-Obesity degree, 2.3% at the degree Obesity I and 0.5% at the degree Obesity II.
In what concerns ones’ psychoactive substances addictives behaviours, the results showed that 26% have already smoked tobacco and 67% have already tasted alcoholic drinks.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The results are supporting the present nureses’ interventions in those areas, with the major aims turned to revitalize schools curricular dynamics and provide to teenagers skills to make healthy decisions, decreasing risk behaviours and promoting healthy lifestyles. Yet, nurses must help teenagers on transition processes, in order to achieve a higher self-estime feeling.
; Marinheiro, Providência Pereira 
