Subjective health in adolescents: demographic and psychological factors
| Date | Start Page | End Page |
|---|---|---|
2025-05-26 | 1 | 1 |
Background: Evaluating adolescents' subjective health assessment is crucial because it serves as a significant predictor of their overall well-being and life satisfaction. Recognizing how adolescents perceive their health can help identify those at risk for mental and physical health issues, enabling timely support and intervention.
Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze self-rated health and its associations with mental health indicators among Lithuanian adolescents.
Method: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee for LSMU Biomedical Research (No. BEC-M-05). Data were collected from Lithuanian schools in April–June 2022 during the national survey in Lithuania. The self-reported paper-pencil questionnaire was used to examine indicators such as self-rated health, well-being, loneliness, happiness, anxiety, health complaints, self-efficacy, gender, grade, and family affluence (FAS). The study sample comprised 6628 participants (aged 14.2±2.23 years) from 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th grades (51% boys). Data analysis was conducted using univariate and multivariate logistic regression.
Results: Girls consistently reported worse self-rated health compared to boys; also, higher-grade students had worse self-rated health. Girls, 9th grade students, and adolescents from the lower FAS group evaluated their health as poorer (p<0.001). The multivariate analysis showed (p<0.001) that lower self-rated health is was more likely in school-children with lower well-being (OR=2.43), somatic (OR=2.36), psychological (OR=1.99) complaints, lower happiness (OR=1.90), higher loneliness (OR=1.44), higher anxiety levels (OR=1.56), lower problem-solving abilities (OR=1.43), and difficulties in achieving personal goals (OR=1.41).
Conclusions: The findings demonstrate poorer self-reported health in girls and higher-grade students. Poorer subjective health consistently associates with worse mental health indicators and frequent health complaints.