Association between physical activity practice and clustering of health risk behaviors in adolescents

Objective: To verify the association between participation in physical activity (PA) and the clustering of health risk behaviors (HRB) in adolescents of both genders. Methods: A cross-sectional study involving 862 adolescents (11 to 17 years old) enrolled in 14 randomly selected public schools from Curitiba, Parana, Brazil. Participation in PA, screen time, consumption of fruit, vegetables, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages were the criteria evaluated. Multinomial logistic regression tested the association between participation in PA and clustering of HRB, and results are expressed Odds Ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Results: Adolescents with high participation in PA had lower odds of clustering 2-3 HRB (OR 0.38, 95%CI 0.21-0.68; p<0.01) and 4-5 HRB (OR 0.29; 95%IC 0.16-0.53; p<0.01). Boys with high participation in PA had lower chances of clustering 2-3 HRB (OR 0.31, 95%CI 0.13-0.75; p=0.01), and girls had lower odds of clustering 2-3 HRB (OR 0.41; 95%CI 0.17-0.99; p=0.04) and 4-5 HRB (OR 0.25; 95%CI 0.10-0.61; p<0.01). Conclusions: High participation in PA was inversely associated with the clustering of HRB in adolescents.