ABSTRACT
To assess youth health behaviours and related quality of life in urban Tunisia, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of 699 secondary-school students. The overweight rate was 20.7%. Most of the sample had an insufficient level of physical activity and were unfamiliar with the recommended frequency of moderate physical activity. Norm-based scores of psychological state were about average, slightly better for boys than girls. Girls perceived themselves to be more stressed than boys. Of all students, 35% declared having smoked a cigarette and 14% having drunk alcohol at least once in their lives. The main sources of health education were mass media (59%) and medical staff (36%).
Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior , Health Behavior , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Health Status , Health Transition , Students , Adolescent , Alcohol Drinking/epidemiology , Analysis of Variance , Attitude to Health , Chi-Square Distribution , Cross-Sectional Studies , Exercise , Female , Health Education , Health Surveys , Humans , Life Style , Male , Overweight/epidemiology , Quality of Life/psychology , Smoking/epidemiology , Stress, Psychological/epidemiology , Students/psychology , Students/statistics & numerical data , Tunisia/epidemiology , Urban Health/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
To assess youth health behaviours and related quality of life in urban Tunisia, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of 699 secondary-school students. The overweight rate was 20.7%. Most of the sample had an insufficient level of physical activity and were unfamiliar with the recommended frequency of moderate physical activity. Norm-based scores of psychological state were about average, slightly better for boys than girls. Girls perceived themselves to be more stressed than boys. Of all students, 35% declared having smoked a cigarette and 14% having drunk alcohol at least once in their lives. The main sources of health education were mass media [59%] and medical staff [36%]
