title: Nutritional status of urban adolescents: individual, household and neighborhood factors based on data from The BH Health Study.
abstract: The increasing prevalence of overweight in young people suggests that adolescent nutritional status is influenced by environmental factors. Using hierarchical modelling, this study aimed to analyse the association between individual, household and neighborhood factors and adolescent nutritional status and well-being. The study used data from a population-based household survey conducted in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, between 2008 and 2009. Data was obtained from an adult and adolescent in each household using a confidential questionnaire and anthropometric measurements. Adolescent nutritional status was evaluated using multinomial regression analysis considering distal and proximal influences. The prevalence of overweight and thinness among the sample of 1,030 adolescents was 21.9% and 4.6%, respectively. Although variables from all blocks remained in the final model, head of household education level, family habits and family nutritional status were shown to strongly influence adolescent nutritional status. New approaches to public health are needed which focus on raising awareness and promoting health education targeting teenagers and their social context.
authors.affiliation: Observatório de Saúde Urbana, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bispo
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: Maria Isabel Toulson Davisson
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Correia
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Saúde e Ecologia Humana, Vespasiano, Brasil.
authors.forename: Fernando Augusto
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Proietti
authors.affiliation: Observatório de Saúde Urbana, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: César Coelho
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Xavier
authors.affiliation: Observatório de Saúde Urbana, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: Waleska Teixeira
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Caiaffa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013851:Thinness / Q000453:epidemiology; D014505:Urban Population