Objectives: The present study aimed to identify the prevalence, and socio-demographic correlates of the isolated and simultaneous presence of health risk behaviors among youth aged 13 – 35 years in Egypt.
Subjects and methods: The Survey of Young People in Egypt (SYPE), was conducted in 2014. This survey included 10916 youth representing total Egypt. Selection of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) health risk behaviors and their explanatory variables of youth aged 13-35 years were used for secondary and advanced analysis.
Results: The health risk behaviors with the highest prevalence were inadequate fruits and vegetable intake (89.7%), inadequate physical activity (49%), excess salt intake (44.2%), and smoking (13.2%). Eighty percent of youth had two or more simultaneous non-communicable diseases (NCDs) risk behaviors. By applying logistic regression analysis, it was observed that, age (tend to accumulate as adolescents grow older) and females were statistically associated with co-occurrence of health risk behaviors. Lower Egypt was the least geographic region of aggregation of risk behaviors.
Conclusion and recommendations: A high prevalence of NCDs health risk behaviors among youth was found in Egypt, both isolated and simultaneously which could expect a significant increase in NCDs in near future. Multi-sectoral integrated approach to encourage people to adopt healthy behaviors on individual-and population-level is recommended