Background: To study the prevalence of cardiovascular risk associated to the lifestyle of school children from the 5th to 8th grade, in public and private schools.
Methods: Eighty seven randomly selected school rooms were visited adding up to 2,125 students who completed the questionnaire and whose body mass index was calculated. This sample represents around 2% of students from two school districts in the city of Sao Paulo.
Results: Of the 2,125 students, 24% were overweight or obese, 53.3% presented inappropriate food habits, 15.4% were sedentary, 62.6% drank alcohol, and 23.1% smoked. Between the 5th and 8th grade, the number of students who drank alcohol doubled and the number of male and female adolescents who tried out smoking increased 3-fold and 5-fold, respectively. Conversely, inappropriate food habits decreased. This situation is found in 40% of students from public schools and in 58% of those in private schools, by the time they reach the 8th grade. Overweight and obesity are more prevalent in private schools and the reduction noted as grades progress did not reach a significance level. Sedentarism is more prevalent in public schools. In private ones, sedentarism is lower among older students, contrary to public schools, where it increases with age. Female adolescents attend fewer physical education classes. Inappropriate food habits were characterized by the habits of adding more salt to pre-prepared food, lower intake of dairy products, fruit and vegetables also a higher intake of soft drinks, butter and snacks.
Conclusion: Early detection of these cardiovascular risks associated to the lifestyle of these school children endorses the preventive practice of providing health education in schools.