Influence of health-related behaviors patterns on obesity among primary and secondary school students: A latent...

To analyze the co-existing patterns of health-related behaviors among children and adolescents at different education stages and the association with obesity.

Cross-sectional study.

A total of 5651 primary and secondary school students were drawn from the National Student Physical Health Survey in 2014 with an average age of 13.53 ± 2.87 years.

Physical measurements and questionnaires were completed, which concluded height, weight, and health-related behaviors (sleep, physical activity, dietary, and screen behavior et al.). Latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted using Mplus 8.3 and SPSS 26.0 was used for other statistical analysis.

Three latent classes of health-related behaviors were fitted for each of the education stages. After adjustment for age, gender, and region, the high-screen behavior group were 2.217 (95%CI = 1.030-4.772, p = .042) times more likely to be obesity than the health-behavior group in primary school, and the poor-diet group and poor-diet and high-screen behavior group were 2.101 (95%CI = 1.396-3.396, p < .001) and 1.788 (95%CI = 1.003-3.190, p = .049) times more likely to be overweight than the health-behavior group in junior middle school respectively.

Obesity is mainly influenced by screen behavior and dietary patterns among children and adolescents. Health-related behavior patterns should be accurately identified and comprehensive joint interventions should be carried out to prevent obesity.