Objective

to identify health-risk behavior and describe their correlation with sociodemo-graphic characteristics in a group of adolescents from a school located in Tabio, Sabana Centro, Cundinamarca.

Methodology

A descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out in school adoles-cents from 14 to 19 years of age during 2018; chosen by convenience sampling. The information was collected using the Spanish version of the RAAPS questionnaire (Rapid assessment for preventive services for adolescents) that assesses risk behaviors, signing of informed consent and assent prior. The statistical analysis was performed in the STATA program, version 14.0.

Results

A sample of 217 students was included, the average age was 15.8 years, 53% were women and 47% were men, most of them from the rural area and socioeconomic status 2. Among the main risk behaviors were never wearing a belt of safety or helmet in almost half of the adolescents, symptoms of sadness in 37.3% with higher prevalence in women, alcohol consumption in 45.2% and sexual activity in 30.9%, both being more fre-quent in the group of 17 to 19 years old and male.

Conclusion

The results confirmed the presence of health risk behaviors in the adolescents of studied population, who must be intervened through effective preventive strategies and warn about the need to implement a periodic surveillance system.