Associated Factors of Suboptimal Health Status Among Adolescents in China: A Cross-Sectional Study

Gehendra Mahara; Jiazhi Liang; Zhirong Zhang; Qi Ge; Jinxin Zhang

doi:10.2147/JMDH.S302826

Associated Factors of Suboptimal Health Status Among Adolescents in China: A Cross-Sectional Study

J Multidiscip Healthc. 2021 May 7:14:1063-1071. doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S302826. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Gehendra Mahara^#¹, Jiazhi Liang^#², Zhirong Zhang³, Qi Ge¹, Jinxin Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Statistics, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, People's Republic of China.
² Center for Disease Control and Prevention at Haizhu, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510288, People's Republic of China.
³ Nanhai District People's Hospital of Foshan City, Foshan, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: Suboptimal health status (SHS) is a state between health and disease, has several adverse effects, although, its main underlying mechanism is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate SHS and its associated factors of adolescents.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the three different geographic locations of China (Shanxi, Guangzhou, and Tibet). A multidimensional sub-health questionnaire of adolescent (MSQA) is used to evaluate SHS. Independent two-sample K-S test was performed for the quantitative data as the non-parametric test, whereas Chi-square test method was applied to explore the difference of discrete variables data between groups. Then finally, multiple logistic regression analysis was applied to analyze the influential factors of SHS.

Results: Among 1461 respondents (between 15 and 18 years old), females proportion (56.47%) was higher than males (43.53%) where SHS was higher in Shanxi followed by Tibet and then Guangdong. The rural area, grade, lack of sleep time, home visit in a week, lack of exercise, a heavy burden of study, smoking, drinking, and fewer friends were the risk factors of SHS, while families living status, seeking help and extroversion were the protective factors.

Conclusion: SHS is significantly associated with behavior and lifestyle-related factors. For comprehensively prevention and control of the SHS, it is urgently needed to reduce the risk factors and enhance the protective factors among adolescents.

Keywords: China; Guangzhou; Shanxi; Tibet; associated factors; high school students; suboptimal health status.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 81773545); and the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (2016A030313365). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.