Hábitos saudáveis: discutindo alimentação e atividades físicas no âmbito escolar

Abstract

Studies have pointed to high rates of overweight and obesity among adolescents, where inadequate diet and sedentary lifestyle are among the main risk factors, as well as for the development of CND, and for this reason, the period of childhood and adolescence is ideal for the construction of healthy habits of life, so that, they can last during the adult phase. In this context, the present research aimed at investigating risk behaviors among young students from the city of São Vicente do Sul, related to food and physical activity in order to promote health in the school space based on the results found. Thus, action-research methodology was used as a methodology, which implies a plan of action aiming at changes through personal and collective reflection, where the proposal was divided into two stages: 1) diagnosis through a questionnaire and physical tests; and 2) pedagogical intervention. The first stage was based on a descriptive quantitative analysis, which analyzed food frequency, socioeconomic and demographic data, frequency of physical activity, anthropometric measurements and health-related physical fitness of 11 to 17 year olds from four schools in that municipality. The second stage aimed to develop a pedagogical intervention based on a qualitative analysis through the dynamics of the three pedagogical moments, with the objective of returning to the schools with the results of the first stage and discussing them together with the teachers of the different areas of education, with the aim to develop activities to promote healthy eating and physical activity and after that, conduct interviews in order to analyze the conceptions of students and teachers about this practice. The results of the analysis of the first and second stages of this study indicate that students prefer industrialized foods, more than 45% reported not practicing physical activities regularly, average fat percentage are high for the age group and sex , and the minimum values found in health-related physical fitness tests indicate cases of exposure to risk behaviors. It was possible to observe during the pedagogical intervention that the students understand the importance of healthy habits for the maintenance of health, but they do not adopt a healthy lifestyle. Also, through the health promotion activities developed by the students it is possible to infer that at least in a partial way the health promotion was effective among the students who developed the activities. In addition, the participating teachers considered the actions carried out to be valid, as well as highlighting the importance of a contextualized and interdisciplinary approach with an emphasis on teaching through research, in the learning process. In this way, proposals such as these are relevant, but for an effective change in the habits of young people, it is necessary that they be developed in a permanent way and, as a complement, training courses are developed with the teachers in order to reduce the difficulties they encountered in working with these subjects in the classroom.