Health behavior of school aged children in Pakistan: a comparative study
Nasir, Usman |
Šumskas, Linas |
Vanagas, Giedrius | |
Aim. To observe and evaluate the health behaviour in school aged children and to get key insights into the health related behaviours of young people. Objectives. To analize and evaluate health behaviours among boys and girls in Pakistan. To analize and evaluate health-risk behaviors among boys and girls in Pakistan.To compare health behaviours of adolescents in Pakistan and Lithuania. Methods. Health Behavior in School aged Children (HBSC) questionnaire was used in this study. Questionnaire survey was carried out in 2 schools of Pakistan. One school was private and one school was public. The were 300 participants and majority of them were 14 and 15 years old. Health behavior was measured with questions concerning adolescent’s nutritional habits (breakfast, fresh fruit and vegetable, sweets, fast food and soft drinks with sugar consumption), health-risk behavior (cigarette use, injuries) and physical activity. Statistical data was analyzed using the statistic package SPSS 15.0 for Windows. Results. Two thirds (78.5%) of respondents thought they are in good health and just 4% claimed having excellent health. Study results showed, that 41% of school students exercise 2-3 times a week and 7.3% less than once a month. It was estimated that more than half of Pakistan adolescents eat breakfast every day on weekdays, but on weekends less than one third have breakfast at home. One third of respondents stated, that eat fresh vegetable and 20.1% of then eat fresh fruit every day. Unhealthy diet products such as sweets, soft-drinks with sugar, fast food adolescents consumed (from 0% till 24.6%) every day or 4-6 times a week. Significant differences were found among gender and soft-drinks with sugar and fast food consumption – girls consumed unhealthy diet products less frequent than boys. The results showed that 12.1% of adolescents reported smoking once a week. Statically significant differences were found among respondent gender and injuries. Girls were injured more often than boys in the past 12 month. Teenagers in Pakistan thought they are in excellent health less frequent than teenagers in Lithuania. Study result showed that statistically significant differences were found between breakfast consumption on weekends, nutritional habits, smoking of adolescents in Pakistan and Lithuania. Conclusions. Adolescents in general experience good health in Pakistan. Physical activity of the majority adolescents did not meet the global WHO recommendations for school-aged children. Fresh vegetables were more popular than fresh fruits among adolescents. Boys and girls consumed fresh fruits and vegetables equally often. Majority of adolescent’s unhealthy diet products consumed rarely. Unhealthy diet products were more popular between boys than girls in Pakistan. Adolescents in Lithuania experience excellent health more often than teenagers in Pakistan. Health behavior of adolescents were different in Pakistan and Lithuania.
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