Association between socio-demographic characteristics and unhealthy behaviours in youth in Luxembourg

Background: Unhealthy lifestyles such as daily sugar consumption (DSC) and physical inactivity (PI) are considered as modifiable risk factors and are crucial in the management of non-communicable diseases. Objective: The objective was to analyse the association between PI and DSC with socio-demographic characteristics of adolescents in Luxembourg.

Methods: 8,538 adolescents aged 11 to 18 participated in this study from the HBSC 2022 survey. Physical inactive adolescents reported 0 days with at least 60 minutes of moderate-vigorous physical activity. DSC refers to those who reported consuming sweets or soft drinks at least once a day. The socio-demographic characteristics investigated included sex, age, migration status, family structure, and perceived wealth. Binomial logistic regression, both crude and adjusted, were performed with socio-demographic characteristics for each unhealthy behaviour.

Results: Adolescents with higher odds ratios of being physically inactive were girls (OR=2.06), older age groups (OR=2.99), with a migration history (parents' migration OR=1.50; self-immigrated OR=1.72), not living with both parents (OR=1.37) and reporting their families as not well-off (OR=2.12). Conversely, DSC was associated with family structure and perceived wealth, where adolescents from non-traditional family structures (OR=1.33) and those who perceived their families as not well-off (OR=1.39) had higher odds ratios of engaging in DSC.

Conclusion: The profile of adolescents who were physically inactive differed from those who consumed sugar daily. These results highlight the complexity of developing health promotion programs targeting adolescents. Further investigation is needed to identify adolescents who present multiple unhealthy behaviours.