Prevalence of behavioral health risk factors and their simultaneous occurrence among students at a public university in Pelotas, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 2017^*

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of behavioral health risk factors and investigate clusters of simultaneous occurrences of these factors among students at a public university in Pelotas, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among university students in the second semester of 2017. Physical inactivity, excessive sedentary behavior, inadequate sleep duration and smoking were the factors studied. Simultaneity of risk factors was evaluated using cluster analysis, through the ratio between observed and expected prevalence, and those that did not include the unit were considered clusters. Results: Among 1,716 students, the prevalence of inadequate sleep duration, physical inactivity, excessive sedentary behavior and smoking were 45.2% (95%CI 42.9;47.6), 44.4% (95%CI 42.7;47.2), 39.8% (95%CI 37.7;42.2) and 10.6% (95%CI 9.6;12.5) respectively. More than 80% of the students presented at least one risk factor. The clusters identified were related to inadequate sleep duration (O/E=1.15) and physical inactivity associated with sedentary behavior (O/E=1.24). Conclusion: High prevalence of the four risk factors studied and only two clusters were observed.