Adolescent health-related behaviors in Beijing: Prevalence and affecting factors

Background: China has the largest adolescent population in the world, and the prevalence of adolescent health-compromising behaviors is increasing, but the amount of research focused on this population is scarce and fragmented compared to its Western counterparts.

Methods: Health-related Behaviors Questionnaires (HRBQ) were collected among 2,445 11th grade students in Beijing from October 2006 to May 2007. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the prevalence of health-related behaviors and to identify affecting factors from both individual and contextual levels.

Results: The adolescents surveyed show a relatively higher prevalence of drinking alcohol (12.1%), smoking (8.2%), viewing pornography (11.8%), skipping breakfast (11.6%) , and consuming fruit/vegetables fewer than once/day (63.0%), but lower prevalence of illicit drug use (5.6%) and sexual intercourse with condoms (2.2%). Males and students enrolled in lower-levels school are more likely to adopt health-compromising behaviors. After controlling for demographics (gender, family structure and school level), the individual psychological factors (self-esteem, academic aspirations, health locus of control), along with contextual factors from family, peers, schools, and extracurricular/leisure domains, affect nearly all health-related behaviors significantly for both boys and girls. The importance of the affecting factors varies among different health-related behaviors and different genders.

Conclusions: The significant differences between the genders and the levels of schools, which were identified in the prevalence and major affecting factors of health-compromising behaviors among Beijing adolescents, will assist policymakers and health professionals in developing tailored health promotion interventions for different groups of adolescents.