Health risk behaviour among adolescent students in higher secondary school of Kathmandu metropolitan city, Nepal

Abstract

Background: Health-risk behaviours are those activities that contribute to the leading causes of mortality, morbidity, disability, and social problems among youth and adults, often are established during childhood and adolescence, extend into adulthood, and are interrelated. The objective of the study was to assess health risk behaviours and their influencing factors among adolescent students in higher secondary school of Kathmandu metropolitan city.Methods: The study was a school based cross-sectional quantitative type. The study was conducted in three government schools of Kathmandu metropolitan city, Nepal. The purposive sampling technique was applied to select total 250 respondents from grade 11 and 12. The self-administered questionnaire was used for the data collection.Results: Study shows that majority of respondents were between aged 17-20 years, 62.4% were female and 76.8% from Hindu religion. Out of the total respondents, 6.4% smoked cigarettes, 18.4% drank alcohol and 6.8% used drugs. Regarding Initiation risk behaviour, 25% first smoked, 32.6% first drank alcohol and 11.76% first used drug at age <14 years (pre-adolescence). The major influencing factor for involving health risk behaviours are peer pressure (70.58%) followed by their curiosity (29.42). Likewise, this study revealed highly association between risk behaviours of respondents and peer pressure.Conclusions: Despite the widespread of knowledge about negative effect of health risk behaviours, the prevalence is of smoking, drinking alcohol and drug use is higher. There is urge need of initiation and activities regarding health risk behaviour targeting to preadolescents and adolescents’ students.

A Comparison of Native and Immigrant Female Students’ Genital Hygiene Behaviors: a Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

“…The use of cotton underwear has an effect on genital hygiene behaviors and its subscales. Studies conducted in different settings and at different times have revealed relationships between vaginal infections and cotton underwear [4,8,20,21,31,[37][38][39][40]. Our nding of a preference for cotton underwear among all fabrics aligns with the literature.…”

An Assessment of Menstrual and Genital Hygiene Behaviours among Adolescent Females at Gazimağusa, Northern Cyprus

“…Data were collected through the Socio-demographic Form and the Genital Hygiene Behaviours Scale. The Sociodemographic Form was developed by the researchers in line with the literature to collect data about the sociodemographic characteristics that might have effects on perineal hygiene (7,13,14,19). The form included 14 questions regarding the participants' demographic characteristics such as the type of school they were enrolled in, grade level, age, family structure, economic condition, etc.…”

“…The most frequently encountered inadequate menstrual and GHB include cleaning the genital area wrongly (from back to front), leaving the genital area moist after cleaning, using nonhygienic clothes in the menstrual period, wearing nylon textile fabric underwear, having a bath and washing hands in inadequate frequency, etc. (11)(12)(13)(14). Genitourinary infections threatening woman's health and becoming a silent epidemic every day are also closely associated with inadequate genital hygiene practices (15)(16)(17).…”