CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY
Psychological Aspects, Physical Activity Levels and Overweight Concerns: A Cross-over Study of Brazilian Adolescents
Kamila Souza Santana1, Sidnei Jorge Fonseca Junior2, Cássia Queiroz3, Aldair José de Oliveira4, Sergio Machado5, 6, *, Geraldo de Albuquerque Maranhão Neto1, 7
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2022Volume: 18
E-location ID: e174501792210120
Publisher ID: e174501792210120
DOI: 10.2174/17450179-v18-e221020-2022-15
Article History:
Received Date: 2/5/2022Revision Received Date: 6/9/2022
Acceptance Date: 23/9/2022
Electronic publication date: 19/12/2022
Collection year: 2022
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Introduction:
This study aims to identify levels of anxiety, depression, body weight, and levels of physical activity, as well as to verify possible associations among these variables in Brazilian adolescents. It is a cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of 291 Brazilian adolescents aged 13 to 15 years old (13.75±0.80 years old).
Methods:
Researchers assessed students by filling out questionnaires of anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as the level of physical activity and checking anthropometric measures. Parametric and non-parametric statistics were used to compare groups divided by psychological, physical and overweight factors for boys and girls, adopting a significance level of 95%.
Results:
Results showed higher waist circumference and physical activity levels for boys (p<0.01) and higher scores for anxiety and depressive symptoms questionnaires for girls (p<0.01). In addition, a low prevalence of depression was observed in boys (0.69%/CI0.03-4.36). For anxiety and depression variables in males and females with and without overweight and physically active and inactive, there were significant differences between groups (p < 0.05), but not within groups.
Conclusion:
The identification of a higher prevalence of girls with anxiety and depression was observed in this study and reinforced this information already demonstrated in the scientific literature. In general, the prevalence of depression was low in boys, while the prevalence of overweight, sedentary lifestyle, anxiety and depression were higher in girls.
