The "Saúde na Boa" project in promoting a healthy lifestyle among high school students O projeto "Saúde na Boa" na promoção de um estilo de vida saudável em escolares do ensino médio

The “ Saude na Boa” project was a school-based randomized trial that was performed in Brazil to promote positive changes in physical activity practices and nutritional behaviors among high school students between 15 and 24 years of age, who were attending night classes and public schools in two Brazilian cities 1 . Recife, a municipality in northeastern Brazil, and Florianopolis, a municipality in southern Brazil, were selected because of their environmental and socio-cultural distinctions. This choice allowed for an analysis of the intervention effectiveness in different contexts. A review of international and national literature revealed that there had been no intervention studies aimed at promoting health behavior changes among night shift students. The lack of school-based health interventions focusing on this specific population and their psychosocial characteristics guided our choice to target this group. Additionally, since the structuring phase of the project we recognized that this was a challenging population group because high school students generally have established lifestyle behaviors. School and life obligations, such as working and preparing for college entrance exams; along with a lack of opportunities to eat healthy and be physically active at school, were all barriers to behavior change in night shift students. The intervention strategies and the theoretical model of the “ Saude na Boa” project 1 were developed considering night shift student characteristics, and based on the logical models of the World Health Organization (Health Promoting School’s Philosophy) 2 and the Center for Disease Control and