Effects of family and peer support upon the stages of health-related behavior in adolescent / 中华预防医学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the stages of health-related behaviors, family and peer support situation about adolescent in Wuhan, and to provide evidence for health intervention and health promotion.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Based on the principle of multi-stage stratified cluster sampling, extracted two junior middle school and two high school in two cities in Wuhan from March 2012 to May. A total of 1 200 students, which were part of the first and second grade class in middle school and high school, toke as the investigation object. The study surveyed following content, including the demographic situation, adolescent health-related behavior (physical activity, sedentary behavior, high-fat diet behavior, fruit and vegetable intaking behavior), stages of adolescent health related behavior (precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance) and adolescent support got from family and peer. The questionnaire was distributed in 1 200 copies, the valid questionnaires were 1 052 and the effective rate was 87.67%. Using χ² test to compare the different stages of change in health related behavior, t test was used to compare different groups of social support and using analysis of variance and post test to analyze social support of the four types behavior.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>In 1 052 students, there was 555 (52.8%) middle school students, 497 (47.2%) high school students, and 553 (52.6%) boys, 499 (47.4%) girls. In physical exercise and sedentary behavior, numbers of precontemplation was respectively accounting for 42.2% (444/1 200) and 28.4% (299/1 200). In high-fat diet behavior, the stages of preparation and maintain was occupied 46.7% (492/1 200). In fruit and vegetable intake behavior, there was 32.9% (346/1200) students in contemplation. Numbers in action stage was both less in the above four behavior, accounting for 6.2% (65/1 200), 8.9% (94/1 200), 14.0% (147/1 200) and 6.3% (66/1 200) separately. Adolescent peer support score respectively (2.9 ± 0.7), (2.8 ± 0.8) and (2.9 ± 0.9), which was higher than the family support scores ((2.7 ± 1.1), (2.5 ± 1.2) and (2.9 ± 1.2)) (t values were -8.72, -11.22 and -2.59, respectively. All P values were < 0.001) in physical exercise, sedentary behavior and high fat diet, but in the intake of fruits and vegetables behavior, family support score was higher than peer support (score was respectively (3.3 ± 0.9) and (3.5 ± 1.2); t < 9.97, P < 0.001). ANOVA and post hoc comparison showed that the score of family and peer support in the after-action stage was significantly higher than that the before-action stage in physical exercise, high-fat diet and fruit and vegetable intake behavior, while the differences in sedentary behavior was not significant.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Youth health-related behaviors remained in its infancy, there was a certain impact on its stages which showed that the higher social support the more advanced stages of behavior.</p>