​11/19/2018

Press Bulletin No 182, 2018

- This is the situation according to the school health and tobacco use surveys among the youth in the country.​

Bogotá, D.C., November 19, 2018. The Ministry of Health and Social Protection, in partnership with Universidad del Valle, presented the results of the National School Health (ENSE) and Youth Tobacco Use (ENTJ) surveys.

The information will allow the Government to know aspects about eating behaviors, physical activity habits, injuries and intimidation, alcohol and drug consumption, oral, visual and hearing health and tobacco use levels, in order to formulate public policies aimed at improving and promoting healthy lifestyles for the prevention of diseases in adulthood.

The purpose of ENSE is to estimate the prevalence of factors related to the health of adolescents. The sample involved 79,640 students aged 13 to 17, in public and private schools in different areas of the country.

The ENTJ, on the other hand, seeks to estimate the prevalence of tobacco consumption and factors related to adolescent consumption, using a sample of 60,914 students, 13-15 years old.

In terms of school health, ENSE, which was carried out for the first time in a national sample, evidenced challenges relating to health in schoolchildren and youth, since the results showed low consumption of fruits, vegetables and dairy products, in contrast with high consumption of sugary drinks, fried package products and sedentary lifestyle. Also, visual and auditory health require caring for.

Likewise, the figures reported in the survey for physical and verbal aggression, participation in fights and school bullying should be taken into account in the planning and implementation of the curriculum, since it is necessary to work on the prevention of violence and the promotion of forms of healthy coexistence.

• 86.9% of school children do not comply with fruit and vegetable consumption frequency: Nine out of ten school students in Colombia do not satisfy the frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption.
• 76.5% of school children do not consume dairy products with the recommended frequency. Three out of four school children in Colombia do not consume the recommended dairy products.
• 43.3% of schoolchildren regularly add additional salt to their meals. Nearly half of school children in Colombia regularly add salt to their meals.
• Consumption of sugary drinks is 74.0%. Three out of four school children in Colombia consume sugary drinks.
• 58.5% of schoolchildren reported consuming fast food type foods at least one day in the past week. One in every two school children in Colombia consumes fast foods.
• 47.3% of schoolchildren consume fried foods at least once a day in the last seven days. One in every two school children in Colombia consumes fried foods.

• 82.4% of school children consume packaged products at least one day out of the last seven. Four out of five school children in Colombia consume package products.
• 46.3% dedicate more than 3 hours a day to sitting watching television, playing video games or surfing the internet. Half of school children in Colombia spend more than three hours watching television, surfing the Internet or playing video games instead of doing physical activities.
• 75.1% of schoolchildren walk or ride their bicycles to get to school at least one day a week. Three out of every four schoolchildren use bicycles at least one day a week to go to school.
• 80.7% of school children perceive that their oral health is excellent or good. In urban areas this percentage is only 44.9%. Four out of every five school students in Colombia believe they have good oral health; however, this is only perceived by two out of every five young people in urban schools.
• 46.3% of schoolchildren reported perceiving some type of visual problem. One in every two school children in Colombia feels they have visual problems.
• 25.8% of school children reported having hearing problems. One in four school children feels they have problems listening.
• 20.5% of schoolchildren reported being victims of assaults during the last year. One in five schoolchildren in Colombia were victims of assaults in the last year.
• 24.4% of school children 20.5% were involved in a physical fight in the last year. One in four school children in Colombia were involved in physical fights in the last year.
• 15.4% of schoolchildren reported having been bullied at least once in the last month. Three out of every twenty school children in Colombia were intimidated in the last month.

 Also, the results of the tobacco use survey showed that about one in five respondents has tried a cigarette in their life; the age at which tobacco is tried for the first time is 12-13 years; and some level of exposure to second-hand smoke was reported in closed and open public spaces.

The following are the main results of the ENTJ (#ColegiosSinTabaco):

1. The prevalence of tobacco consumption in the last 30 days was 26.8%. One in four school students smoked a cigarette in the last 30 days.

• Higher prevalence was found in men (28.8%) vs. women (24.6%).
• It was higher in official schools (27.8%) vs. private schools (20.4%)
• Greater in urban area (27.4%) vs. rural area (23.3%).
• Barranquilla had the lowest prevalence with 20.8%, while Medellín registered the highest with 28.3%.
• 47.2% of schoolchildren reported having been exposed to advertising environments with messages that discourage the use of tobacco. Half of school students say they recognize advertising messages to not smoke cigarettes.
• 39.3% of schoolchildren reported not having received information about the risks associated with tobacco or not knowing if they had received it and 42.9% reported having received information.
• 14.8% of students report having been exposed to tobacco smoke in the home in the last seven days.
• 25.6% of the students declared that the school is one of the spaces of secondhand smoke exposure. This figure is 16.1% for the rural sector and 27.4% for the urban sector.
• Homes and schools are perceived by schoolchildren as places of cigarette consumption. One in four students feels that there is secondhand smoke in their schools, while one in six perceives that this happens in their homes.

To conclude, tobacco consumption has been associated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and cancer, which poses not only an institutional challenge, but one to society and families, to reduce risk factors and promote protective factors associated with consumption.