Life style and sociodemographic characteristics of adolescents from five educational institutions Estilos de vida y características sociodemográficas de adolescentes de cinco instituciones educativas.

Abstract

Objective: Determine the relationship between the life styles and the sociodemographic characteristics of school going adolescents in two subregions of the Sucre department, Colombia. Materials and Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational study. The sample was made by 427 public middle school students, between the ages of 10 to 15, selected through a systematic sample by school grade. The Fantastic Instrument (Chilean version) was applied and adapted to Colombia by Betancourth, Velez and Jurado (2015) for the characterization of preadolescent and adolescent life styles, with optimal levels of content validity and reliability (Cronbach Alpha by criteria): pertinence (0,932), relevance (0,904), utility (0,948), composition (0,846) and clarity (0,800). Results: The average age was 13,1 years, with percentage similarity by gender (50%), the students came from Sincelejo (69,1%), and Santiago de Tolu (30,9%), where the predominant life style was adequate for the age range between 13 and 15 years (32,9% and 25,8%). The life style related to gender, age and educational institutions by subregion, reported significant differences in the dimensions of physical and social activity, sleep and stress, nutrition, family, and friends (p< 0,01); type of personality and school satisfaction, inner image and order (p< 0,05). Conclusions: Significant differences were found between some life style dimensions with the variables of gender, age, school grade and educational institutions by subregion. It is important for life style intervention studies, to minimize the risk factor for adolescents and prevent diseases.