Lifestyle: leisure and ludic-sportive activities of schoolchildren in Santa Cruz do Sul

Abstract

This descriptive study aims to characterize the lifestyle profile of schoolchildren in Santa Cruz do Sul- RS, regarding the following topics: leisure activities at home and outdoors and ludic and sportive activities, stratified by gender and region (downtown, outskirts and countryside). The study comprises 2486 schoolchildren, boys and girls, aged 7 to 17, from the downtown area, outskirts and countryside, and for data collection, the EVIA (lifestyle) was used. B and C are the predominant socioeconomic classes. The results show that the boys (84.3%) practice more sports activities than the girls (72%). In the countryside, this rate is higher (86.7%), followed by downtown (78.9%) and outskirts (73.1%). The predominant leisure activities at home are TV (downtown and outskirts), talking/playing with friends (downtown), and listening to music (outskirts and countryside). Outdoors; talking/playing with friends (in all regions), go for a car ride (downtown), play football (outskirts and countryside), ride the bike (countryside) and go for a walk (outskirts). At sports (boys), football predominates, especially in the countryside, followed by basketball (downtown), and for the girls it is volleyball (downtown and outskirts) and football (countryside). We draw the conclusion that the habits we studied, both in the town area and countryside, are poorly diversified, considering all cultural contents on leisure activities. It was also concluded that most schoolchildren lead a sedentary life, particularly the girls, favoring the appearance of risk factors of cardiovascular diseases, a fact that should capture the attention of the school's Physical Education department and of the government, providing more spaces and physical and sports activities.