Background. Adolescents’ health strictly depends on the behavioural factors that might cluster together in the risky – healthy profile. Several studies demonstrated the positive role of Physical Activity (PA) on psycho-physical young development. Nevertheless some of them showed the possible harms for abuse behaviours, due to the exposure to peer pressure in a recreational setting and performance enhancement achievement. Aims. To describe the alcohol consumption and PA profile in different adolescents’ subgroups. To evaluate the protective role of PA considering individual and environmental determinants. Methods. A cross-sectional study has been performed in 2006 involving 3,488 students of Abruzzo Region (48.5 % males) 14.5 (St Dev 0.7) years aged on average. They filled in two questionnaires, the Eudap Questionnaire on abuse behaviours and the Sport Support Questionnaire on physical activity profile. Three outcome’s measures on alcohol use/misuse have been collected: actually daily drinking, actually at least weekly drinking and almost one time (ALO) to get drunk in the last thirty days. Physical Activity profile has been referred to Organized PA (OPA) level and No-Structured PA in the last 7 days (NSPA-7d) level. Therefore, adolescents are classified as “No active”, “Low active” or “High active” in OPA as well as in NSPA-7d. The influence of psychosocial determinants on alcohol at least weekly use and drunkenness has been assessed by mean of “intermediate variables” such social norms, beliefs and knowledge on consequences of alcohol use, intra and inter-personal skills, social support and, finally, school experience opinion. These variables have been also studied as “mediators” of positive / negative influence of OPA’s or NSPA-7d’s involvement by the “mediation analysis”. Results. Alcohol consumption appears higher in males than in females and it increases with age from 14 to 16 years; alcohol misuse, instead, seems to differ principally for age of misusers: males got drunk a little more than females but 16 years older much more than younger (Table 1) As regard OPA involvement, males are more active than females: respectively 47.6 % vs 28.8 % are “High-active”. On the contrary, males have been involved in NSPA-7d less than females (24.9 % vs 30.9 % at “High level”) Crossing data on PA habits and alcohol consumption it clearly appears that they can play on opposite influence depending by the level of involvement, with some differences between genders. In Females, “High” levels of OPA and NSPA-7d are significantly expositive to higher alcohol consumption and misuse, while “Low” levels are protective especially vs drunkenness (Figure 1). In Males, instead, only daily drink is significantly related to OPA-involvement, in protective way (Figure 2).

Alcohol abuse and physical activity profile in italian adolescents

SCATIGNA, MARIA;
2008-01-01

Abstract

Background. Adolescents’ health strictly depends on the behavioural factors that might cluster together in the risky – healthy profile. Several studies demonstrated the positive role of Physical Activity (PA) on psycho-physical young development. Nevertheless some of them showed the possible harms for abuse behaviours, due to the exposure to peer pressure in a recreational setting and performance enhancement achievement. Aims. To describe the alcohol consumption and PA profile in different adolescents’ subgroups. To evaluate the protective role of PA considering individual and environmental determinants. Methods. A cross-sectional study has been performed in 2006 involving 3,488 students of Abruzzo Region (48.5 % males) 14.5 (St Dev 0.7) years aged on average. They filled in two questionnaires, the Eudap Questionnaire on abuse behaviours and the Sport Support Questionnaire on physical activity profile. Three outcome’s measures on alcohol use/misuse have been collected: actually daily drinking, actually at least weekly drinking and almost one time (ALO) to get drunk in the last thirty days. Physical Activity profile has been referred to Organized PA (OPA) level and No-Structured PA in the last 7 days (NSPA-7d) level. Therefore, adolescents are classified as “No active”, “Low active” or “High active” in OPA as well as in NSPA-7d. The influence of psychosocial determinants on alcohol at least weekly use and drunkenness has been assessed by mean of “intermediate variables” such social norms, beliefs and knowledge on consequences of alcohol use, intra and inter-personal skills, social support and, finally, school experience opinion. These variables have been also studied as “mediators” of positive / negative influence of OPA’s or NSPA-7d’s involvement by the “mediation analysis”. Results. Alcohol consumption appears higher in males than in females and it increases with age from 14 to 16 years; alcohol misuse, instead, seems to differ principally for age of misusers: males got drunk a little more than females but 16 years older much more than younger (Table 1) As regard OPA involvement, males are more active than females: respectively 47.6 % vs 28.8 % are “High-active”. On the contrary, males have been involved in NSPA-7d less than females (24.9 % vs 30.9 % at “High level”) Crossing data on PA habits and alcohol consumption it clearly appears that they can play on opposite influence depending by the level of involvement, with some differences between genders. In Females, “High” levels of OPA and NSPA-7d are significantly expositive to higher alcohol consumption and misuse, while “Low” levels are protective especially vs drunkenness (Figure 1). In Males, instead, only daily drink is significantly related to OPA-involvement, in protective way (Figure 2).
2008
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11697/27791
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