Nutritional status, nutritional self-perception, and use of licit drugs in adolescents

OBJECTIVE To associate the nutritional status and the self-perception of nutritional status with the use of licit drugs among adolescents. METHODS Cross-sectional study in which 210 adolescents answered a questionnaire on alcohol and tobacco experimentation and self-perceptions about their nutritional status. The correspondence between the adolescents' perception of their own nutritional status and actual nutritional status was analyzed, as well as associations between nutritional status, self-perception of nutritional status, gender, age, and presence of smokers at home with alcohol and tobacco use. The variables were analyzed separately in a bivariate analysis and, subsequently, a multivariate analysis determined the factors associated with drug use. RESULTS The study included 210 adolescents with a median age of 148 months; 56.6% were females. Of the total sample, 6.6% have tried cigarettes, and 20% have tried alcohol; 32.3% had BMI Z-Score≥1, 12.85% had BMI Z-Score≥2, and 50.7% had a correct perception of his/her weight. After a multivariate analysis, only the self-perception about weight statistically influenced experimentation of tobacco, and patients who identified themselves as having very high weight were more likely to experiment tobacco (odds ratio (OR) 13.57; confidence interval (95% CI) 2.05-89.8; p=0.007); regarding alcohol use, adolescents who identified themselves as having high weight were 2.4 times more likely to experiment with alcohol than adolescents that identified themselves as having normal weight (95% CI 1.08-5.32, p=0.031). CONCLUSIONS Adolescents with self-perception of excess weight may constitute a risk group for alcohol and tobacco use.