Abstract Objective:

To investigate the involvement of young Brazilian students about five behaviors: tobacco use, alcohol consumption, sexual intercourse, knowledge about HPV, and knowledge about oral and oropharyngeal cancer.

Material and Methods:

Through a cross-section design, we explored some factors that might be associated with boys and girls. Statistical Regression methods were applied to identify differences, considering the estimation of the Odds Ratio.

Results:

Half of the sample had already consumed alcohol and at least 1 in 10 individuals had already tried smoking. One-third of adolescents have had sexual intercourse.

Three factors related to boys were associated in the multiple regression analysis:

have heard about HPV, have not heard about oral cancer, and think that HPV can cause oropharyngeal cancer. In conclusion, it seems that boys and girls were equally exposed to smoking-alcohol-sex; however, some differences were verified concerning the knowledge about HPV and oral / oropharyngeal cancer.

Conclusion:

Keep monitoring adolescents should be a priority to our study area, considering that those youngers had already being exposed to the risk factors for cancer.