Associação da mudança do status maturacional com comportamentos relacionados à saúde e com componentes da aptidão física de adolescentes

Abstract

Objective: To analyze whether the change in the maturational status of adolescents is associated with changes in health-related behaviors and changes in the components of physical fitness. Methods: longitudinal study with two collection phases (cohorts) carried out with adolescents aged 11 to 17 years, of both sexes. In each cohort, anthropometric data were collected to calculate maturity offset and classification of adolescents regarding maturity status. Health related behaviors were assessed using the WebCas electronic questionnaire. Tests of localized muscular resistance (RML), power of lower limbs, aerobic capacity and speed were also performed to evaluate components of physical fitness (CAF). For data analysis, the Mann-Whitney test was performed to characterize the sample stratified by sex in each collection, in addition to the Chisquare test for behavior variables, dichotomized into adequate / inadequate. The adolescents who participated in the two collection phases were separated into groups according to whether or not the maturation status changed during this period. Behavior change was categorized as: no change, positive change and negative change. The change in the components of physical fitness was dichotomized into: it increased and decreased. Associations between changes in behavior and physical fitness components with changes in maturation status were performed using the Chi-square test. Results: the study involved 730 adolescents, 162 of whom were evaluated at two points in time (54% male). The two cohorts showed a higher prevalence of inappropriate behavior for the consumption of fruits and vegetables, number of hours of sleep and level of physical activity. Male adolescents showed significantly higher values for all components of physical fitness in both cohorts (p <0.05). The adolescents who participated in the two phases of the collection showed a significant increase in body mass and height, and a significant decrease in the values of the RML and speed tests. The maintenance of maturation status was associated with a negative change in vegetable consumption behaviors (p = 0.040) and NAF (p = 0.007). There was no association between a change in maturation status and an increase or decrease in the components of physical fitness. Conclusion: the change in maturation status did not show significant associations with changes in health-related behaviors or changes in the components of physical fitness in adolescents, however, longer follow-up studies are necessary for this gap to be widely understood.