Abstract

It aimed to learn the daily habits related to the physical activity practice among public state schools adolescents in Fortaleza-Brazil. It regards a transversal study accomplished with 720 students in 12 public state schools, at ages from 14 to 19 years old of both genders. Data were collected in the months of February and March, 2006 by applying a form containing identification data and questions related to physical activity practice. Individuals who practiced physical activity exercises for a period of less than 30 minutes and less than three times a week were classified as sedentary. Findings reported that 65.8% were inserted in an age group comprehended between 14 and 17 years old, 81.1% attended high school, 59.3% belonged to the female gender and 75.3% were sedentary. From those, 69% were women, 10% were overweight, 2.8% were obese, 67.6% belonged to the above mentioned age group and 8.5% presented an above-rate capillary glucose. It is concluded that there is a high percentage of sedentary individuals, although the overweight ones is low. Women are more sedentary than men and yet that sedentariness is concentraded in minors.