Self-Rated Health among youth and its associations with physical activity outside school, BMI and television time in an urban municipality of Portugal

Abstract

This study examined associations of physical activity (PA) outside school, Body mass index (BMI) and Television time (TVT) with SRH among youth. 1121 adolescents, aged from 10-18 years old participated in this cross-sectional study. PA was obtained through a questionnaire developed by Telama et al. (1997)¹. TVT was accessed by asking the participant how many hours/day did they watch tv in the preceding week. Cole et al. (2000)² cut points for BMI [weight (kg)/ height² (m)] were used as an indicator of children’s nutritional status. Associations of self-reported PA, TVT and BMI to SRH were assessed by gender, using Chi Squared and multivariate logistic regression controlling for mothers’ education level. High levels of physical activity (boys: OR 2.43, 95% CI 1.24 to 4.78; girls: OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.26 to 3.24) were significantly associated with better SRH in adolescents. Obese/overweight boys were less likely to report positive SRH (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.81) compared to their normal-weight peers. TVT in both genders and being overweight/obese in girls was not significantly associated with SRH. Results suggest that positive SRH is associated with PA levels, in both boys and girls, and with better nutritional status in boys.