Selected health-risk behaviors among middle and high school students in Chan-Aye-Tharzan township of Mandalay city and their determinants.
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Date
2014-06-01
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Myanmar Medical Association
Abstract
A cross-sectional study was done during 2010 to determine the self-reported prevalence
of health-risk behaviors such as smoking, alcohol drinking and betel chewing among young students
in Mandalay and examine their determinants. Six hundred students from grade six to eleven
from a randomly selected Basic Education High School were recruited into the study by systematic
random sampling. Data were collected by anonymous self-administered questionnaire and were
analyzed by SPSS version 17.0 software. The prevalence of current smoking, alcohol drinking and
betel chewing habits among middle and high school students were 2.3%, 1.2% and 6.7% respectively.
Those who reported ever smoking, drinking and betel chewing were 5.7%, 3% and 10.3%
respectively. The mean ages of initiating smoking, alcohol drinking and betel chewing were 13.1,
14.3 and 13.2 years respectively. These health-risk behaviors were significantly associated not only
with students’ characteristics such as age (p < 0.001), sex (p < 0.001) and education level or grade
(p < 0.001) but also among each other (p < 0.001). The students whose fathers smoked were more
likely to report smoking (p = 0.052). Similarly, drinking (p = 0.004) and betel chewing (p = 0.005)
habits of students were significantly associated with similar behaviors of their fathers. This study
created the composite variable reflecting the concurrent multiple health-risk behaviors based on the
smoking, drinking and betel chewing habits of fathers. The greater the number of risk behaviors of
fathers, the more likely the students to become smokers (p < 0.001), drinkers (p = 0.024), and betel
chewers (p = 0.002). If their fathers were currently unemployed, school children were more likely
to be smokers (p = 0.002) and betel chewers (p = 0.012). Although the prevalence of smoking and
drinking among high school students in Chan-Aye-Tharzan township, Mandalay were lower than
that of neighboring countries, the existing tobacco and alcohol control programs require intensification
to reduce the extent of health-risk behaviors. Fathers seemed to play a vital role in controlling
these health-risk behaviors of students that posed threat to their health. Therefore, fathers should
be encouraged to join the effective risk reduction program of high school students to avoid smoking,
alcohol drinking and betel chewing.
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Keywords
Smoking, Alcohol drinking, Betel chewing, Public Health, Health-risk behaviors, High school students, Mandalay
Citation
Win Myint Oo, Hla Moe, Wah Wah Shan. Selected health-risk behaviors among middle and high school students in Chan-Aye-Tharzan township of Mandalay city and their determinants. Myanmar Medical Journal. 2014 June; 56 (1): 15-22.