Fatores de risco e proteção para doenças crônicas não transmissíveis entre adventistas do sétimo dia

Abstract

The healthy living of some specific groups has aroused the interest of the scientific community, and, accordingly, we highlight the Seventh Day Adventists. The lifestyle of this group consists of a combination of beneficial habits, such as having a healthy diet, rather vegetarian, avoid drinking coffee, tea and other beverages that contain stimulants, have a practice of regular physical activity, and abstain from tobacco, alcohol and other drugs. International researches demonstrated that the Seventh Day Adventists have lower mortality and greater longevity when compared to the general population. In Brazil, however, the evidences are scarce. The objective of this dissertation is to describe the health profile of the Seventh day Adventists and investigate the prevalence of risk factors and protection for Chronic Non-communicable Diseases and associated factors. Through a cross-sectional design, we investigated a probability sample (n = 361) of the population of Seventh day Adventists who live in the city of Vitória / ES (Brazil), aged 30 years old or over. We used a systematic sampling procedure, with proportional stratification by age group. For data collection, there was a stage of recruitment by means of telephone contact, from which information and data on socio-demographic and health conditions were collected. In a second step, we applied an auto-filling structured questionnaire on behavioral aspects, social support, religiosity, and moreover about weight and height. The data were analyzed in the R program and to compare the proportions, we used the chi-square test and the Fisher s exact test. Of the 361 individuals interviewed, most are female (64.0%), have 12 years of education or more (37.5%), declared itself brown(50.7%) and with stable relationship (69.5 %), was not born in Adventist family (70.9%), attends Adventist church weekly (86.8%) and is dedicate itself daily to the meditation practice in family (74.8%).The average age of this population was 50.5 years (SD = 14.7) and with per capita income of 1.8 minimum wages (SD = 1.4). With regard to the social support, we found a mean score of 81.33 points (SD = 17.98). Consumption of whole milk (62%), meat intake with visible fat (33.2%) and use alcoholic drink in the life (32.6%) were the most frequent risk factors, while among the protection factors, regular consumption of beans (81.9%) of greens and vegetables (73.5%) and fruits (63.1%) had the highest prevalence. Generally, healthier behaviors were observed among females, and among individuals with greater schooling and income. People who were raised as Adventists showed higher regular consumption of soft drinks (beverages) and lower frequency of consumption of alcohol and tobacco in life. The study population presented a significant proportion of hypertensive patients (27.1%), diabetics (6.6%) and overweight people (51.8%). The frequency of hypertension increased with age, decreased with education level, was higher among widowed, ex-smokers, diabetics, and people physically inactive and overweight, and lower among consumers of whole milk. Adventists at older ages, with up to eight years of schooling, widowers, belonging to the first third (tertile) of per capita income, and those who reported not drinking milk with full-fat content, had higher prevalence of diabetes. Overweight was positively associated with the habit of consuming meat with fat and take soft drinks regularly, and negatively to the regular consumption of fruits and the vegetarianism. The results showed a diversity of life habits related to health among the Adventists studied, and a high prevalence of arterial hypertension, diabetes and overweight, as well as certain behavioral risk factors investigated.