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Introduction: Parents and teachers are the primary consultants to understand the emotional and behavioral problems of school-going adolescents. The current study focuses on parents’ and class teachers’ perspectives of school-going adolescents’ emotional and behavioral problems. Material and Methods: A Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was conducted among 19 schools from government-private and rural-urban schools across Kollam District, Kerala. Malayalam/English version of the strength and difficulties questionnaire was administered among a sample of 600 parents and 60 class teachers of school-going adolescents. Results: Multiple linear regression analysis showed that parents' reports is significantly predicted by gender (P < 0.01), urban-rural settings (P < 0.001) and socioeconomic status (P < 0.01). Teachers’ reports have significantly been predicted by urban-rural settings (P < 0.01) and socioeconomic status (P < 0.001). Conclusion: More attention is needed for the protection of adolescent’s mental health and fills mental health gaps in services.
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Background andObjectives:Adolescence which is the transitional period between childhood and adulthood is often the neglected phase as the adolescents are often regarded as relatively healthy with the focus being given for children and women. Addressing the nutritional needs of adolescents could be an important step in curbing malnutrition among them. With the rising epidemic of Non-communicable diseases, it is equally important to address both the issues of under-nutrition and over-nutrition. Hence this study was undertaken to assess the nutritional status and associated risk factors of malnutrition among the school going adolescents from 5thto 12thstandard in the rural field practice area of Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences (HIMS), Hassan.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted among the school going adolescents attending the government and private schools of the rural field practice area of the medical college from January 2017 to June 2018. The sample size of 830 was divided between the three areas under rural field practice area as per sample size proportional to population. BMI was measured and WHO reference charts 2007 for BMI was used to categorize the nutritional status of the adolescents.Results:The prevalence of malnutrition among the school going adolescents was found to be 44.1% of which the prevalence of thinness and severe thinness was 15.8% and 21.3% respectively and that of overweight and obesity was 5.8% and 1.2% respectively. On logistic regression, male gender, government school, lower socio-economic status, deworming status and open-air defecation were identified as significant risk factors for undernutrition and female gender, private school, upper socio-economic status, low levels of physical activity, excess television watching, consuming junk foods, breakfast skipping, inadequate sleeping hours were identified as significant risk factors for overnutrition. Conclusion:The prevalence of malnutrition among the school going adolescentswas found to be 44.1% in our study. Gender, type of school in which they study, socio-economic status and life style behaviours were found to be significant risk factors for malnutrition. There is a need for health education programmes, regular monitoringand effective policies to promote healthy eating and lifestyle changes among adolescents to curb the burden of malnutrition
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@# Minimizing smoking initiation among adolescents has been identified as a strategy to reduce the prevalence of tobacco induced diseases among Malaysian adults. The aims of this study were to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with smoking among secondary school- going adolescents in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia. Methods: A school-based survey was carried out in Kelantan to determine the prevalence and associated factors of smoking among Kelantanese adolescents. Two-stage cluster sampling was used to ensure the representativeness of the sample. A self-administered validated questionnaire was utilised to obtain data from the selected respondents. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors associated with smoking behaviour among school-going adolescents. Results: The study revealed that 10.1% (95 CI 8.5-11.9%) of the selected respondents were current smokers. The prevalence of male who smoked was significantly higher compared to female. MLR revealed that, males, respondents with at least one smoking parent/guardian, as well as the respondents with less supportive parents/ guardian were more likely to smoke. However, by having a few numbers of close friends and helpful peers in the school had shown no significant association for being the current smokers. Conclusion: The study showed that the prevalence of smoking was a bit lower than the national prevalence, and smoking behaviour was predominant among male adolescents in Kelantan state. Comprehensive measures with the involvement of parents/guardians were imperative to tackle smoking habits among adolescents by targeting high-risk groups identified in the study.
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Background: Developing countries are experiencing an epidemic of obesity and overweight. Adolescence is the stage when the lifestyle behavior sets in and decides the future pattern of health. The objective was to study the prevalence and correlates of overweight and obesity among school going adolescents of district Ghaziabad.Methods: A school based cross sectional survey was conducted in district Ghaziabad. Adolescents (10-19 years) from both urban and rural government and private schools were included. Multistage sampling technique was used to study 1128 study population. Anthropometry and a structured questionnaire were used as study tool.Results: In urban area, the proportion of underweight students in government schools (20.9%) was significantly more than the private school (13.8%) whereas the number of overweight students in private school (18.2%) was significantly more than the government schools (10.3%). In rural area underweight students in government school (30.5%) was significantly more than the private school (21.3%) whereas the number of overweight students in private school (11.3%) was significantly more than the government school (3.2%). Obesity was significantly associated with the area of residence, type of school, consumption of carbonated drinks, fast foods and decreased physical activity.Conclusions: An overall higher prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents in urban areas and increasing trend in rural areas too alarm us to focus on the modifiable risk factors
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Background: Abnormal nutritional status i.e. underweight, overweight and obesity is increasing rapidly amongst adolescents irrespective of socioeconomic status and geography. This study was carried out to assess prevalence of abnormal nutritional status and common associated morbidities among school going adolescent of rural areas of Vadodara, Gujarat, India.Methods: A cross sectional observational study was done among school going adolescents of rural areas of Vadodara, Gujarat. A predesigned and pretested semi-structured proforma was used to get relevant clinical details of study participants. Total 474 students aged 12-17 years participated in our study.Results: Out of 474 enrolled adolescents, 16.67% were underweight, where as 3.8% and 2.95% were obese and overweight respectively. The prevalence of overweight and obesity were almost similar in both genders. Out of total 16.24% were stunted with predominance in boys compared to girls (p value: 0.039). Hypertension was found in 5.0% of participants with 3 times more prevalent in girls than boys (p value 0.011). Similarly, anemia was affecting both genders equally.Conclusions: Although underweight is a known nutritional problem of adolescents from rural areas, overweight and obesity are also rapidly growing health issues among them now a days. With keeping in mind this increasing burden of abnormal nutritional status and associated morbidities, regular health check-up, education of parents and adolescents on healthy lifestyle and inclusion of adolescents in existing government programmes are essential measures to reduce these problems.
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@#Introduction: Self-esteem is important for the development of adolescent’s psychological well-being. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) is the most commonly used instrument for measuring self-esteem. However, the Malay-language version of the RSES (RSES-M) has not been validated among upper secondary school students in Malaysia. Methods: We administered the RSES-M to 3349 students who participated in the Malaysia Adolescent Health Risk Behavior (MyAHRB) study. The construct validity of the RSES-M was assessed using exploratory factor analysis while internal consistency was evaluated by Cronbach alpha. Results: The study identified two factors in the RSES-M. The variance for the first and second factor was 30.32% and 19.91%, respectively, Item 7 (I wish I could have more respect to myself) which showed a positive correlation with the positive wording contrasted with the original RSES. Such contrary may be due to social and cultural background difference. Conclusion: The translated version of RSES-M can be considered as a valid tool to measure self-esteem in upper school going adolescents in Malaysia. However, future studies to determine the psychometric properties of item 7 in the Malaysian setting are strongly recommended to enhance the validity of RSES-M
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Objective: 1. To find out the prevalence of Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) on the basis of presence of bitot’s spot and conjunctival xerosis among rural school going adolescents of District Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India. 2. To identify the associated factors and to suggest the suitable measures to prevent VAD among them. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Field practices areas Department of Community Medicine RMC&H Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh India, between Jan 2012 to Dec 2012. Participants: 900 school going adolescents. Sampling: Multistage sampling method. A structured schedule was used to collect the information. Statistical Analysis: Data were analyzed with SPSS 17. Significant difference was determined using Chi- square test. Results: The overall prevalence of VAD was found to be 42.22%. It was higher in 15-19 years of age group adolescents (48.77%) as compare to 10-14 years (41.6%). The prevalence of VAD was slightly higher among boys (p value=0.666). Out of total 398 (42.22%) VAD adolescents 300 adolescents were from socioeconomic class V. Conclusion: Nutrition education regarding regular intake of foods rich in vitamin A rich is needed to prevent the deficiency.