Association between physical activity, participation in Physical Education classes, and social isolation in

Objective: To analyze the association between physical activity, participation in physical edu- cation classes, and indicators of social isolation among adolescents. Methods: This was an epidemiological study based on secondary analysis of data from a rep- resentative sample of students (14---19 years) from public high schools (n = 4207). Data were collected through the questionnaire Global School-based Student Health Survey. The indepen- dent variables were the level of physical activity and enrollment in physical education classes, while the dependent variables were two indicators of social isolation (feeling of loneliness and having few friends). Descriptive and inferential procedures were used in the statistical analysis. Results: Most of the adolescents were classi“ed as insuf“ciently active (65.1%) and reported not attending physical education classes (64.9%). Approximately 15.8% participants reported feelings of loneliness and, additionally, 19.5% adolescents reported having only one friend. In the bivariate analysis, a signi“cantly lower proportion of individuals reporting social isolation was observed among adolescents who referred higher enrollment in physical education classes. After adjustment for confounding variables, binary logistic regression showed that attending