Clustering of health risk behaviors in pregnant individuals: Data from the Brazilian risk factor surveillance system for non-communicable chronic diseases

Objective: To investigate the clustering of health risk behaviors (HRB) and its association with demographics, physical exercise, overweight, perception of health, and diseases in Brazilian pregnant people.Study design: This is a cross-sectional study using data from the Risk Factor Surveillance System for Non communicable Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey (VIGITEL), the main health survey in Brazil.Methods: We used data on fruit and vegetable consumption, TV time, tobacco, and alcohol abuse in individuals who reported being pregnant (n = 4553). We used latent class analysis to identify optimal HRB clustering among participants. Multinomial regression (odds ratio [OR] and 95% confidence intervals [95%CI]) was applied to identify factors associated with HRB cluster.Results: Three clustering classes were identified: "without HRB cluster" (i.e., least unhealthy behaviors) (n = 2402, 52,8%), "moderate HRB cluster" (n = 1983, 43,5%), and "high HRB cluster" (i.e., most unhealthy behaviors) (n = 168, 3,7%). Pregnant people aged 35-50 years (OR = 1.89, 95%CI = 1.01; 3.52) who did not practice physical exercise (OR = 1.94, 95%CI 1.11; 3.39) were more likely to be classified as "high HRB cluster". Participants with 9-11 years (OR = 0.11, 95%CI = 0.07; 0.17) and >= 12 (OR = 0.05, 95%CI = 0.02; 0.11) years of education had a lower likelihood of being in the "high HRB cluster".Conclusion: Three HRB clustering patterns were found in this study. Greater maternal age, low education, and absence of physical exercises increased the chances of being in the high HRB cluster group. Participants with higher educational levels were less likely to be in the High HRB cluster.