Health risk of adolescents in the rural and urban environment: integrative review

• Autor(a) principal: Mendes, André
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Mendes, Elisabete, Caldeira, Hugo, Gomes, Laura, Lima, Patrícia, Menino, Eva, Francisco, Stefanie, Corte, Agostinha
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/3902
• topic: Rural health; Urban health; Risk behavior; Adolescent

Young people have specific health risks whether they live in a rural environment or in an urban environment. It was intended with this integrative literature review to identify the specific health risks of young people in rural and urban settings. To achieve this, we carried out an integrative review of the literature on EBSCO databases, PROQUEST, Mendeley, B-ON, from February 2018 to May 2018, having the selection criteria articles published between 2002 and 2018 so that we identify recent studies that reveal actual risks. The results allowed us to identify a very varied set of risk behaviours in both rural and urban settings. Most of the studies analysed had a transversal design, anthropometric evaluations were performed to evaluate health status. Interesting findings resulted, namely young people in rural areas are exposed to additional and more varied risks than urban ones, requiring greater supervision and follow-up by health professionals. These findings can help to define practices more directed to real risks. Although health authorities are aware of some risks to which young people are subjected, studies report little or nothing has been done to protect them, so we believe that it is urgent to create health policies that are appropriate for each environment to safeguard them.