A study to assess the prevalence of behavioral risk factors for lifestyle diseases among late adolescents in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: Lifestyle diseases are now the major causes of premature morbidity, mortality, and economic loss in developed and developing countries, including the younger age groups.The four major preventable behavioral risk factors are tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol. Life of adolescents is a transitional period, offering them good opportunities for establishing health-promoting lifestyles. This study is done to assess the prevalence of behavioral risk factors for lifestyle diseases of college going adolescents of Chennai. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 483 randomly selected undergraduate students from randomly selected colleges in Chennai between March and September 2016 by two stage stratified sampling method using a semi-structured questionnaire. Data was fed into excel sheet and Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was done using SPSS v.21 package. Results: The participants were between 17 and 20 years. They belonged to professional and non professional colleges. 78% students had unhealthy lifestyle habits. All the participants had at least one risk factor in them. The awareness on the risk factors was significantly less among non professional students, but they had significantly better behavioural habits than the professional students. Boys had significantly better habits than girls and students who were overweight significantly had unhealthy lifestyle habits. Conclusions: The study reflects the poor lifestyle habits of all college-aged individuals, which can be effectively improved by health education and behaviour change communication.

Health-Related Lifestyle Among College-Going Youth in Bhubaneswar, Odisha

“…Out of 23% of them who spent one to two hours on exercise per day, 23.6% were females, while 20.9% were males. In a study by Evangeline et al [21], 97.6% of the males were seen to be spending more time on exercise compared to 2.4% of females, which was in contrast with the findings of our study.…”

“…Out of 35.9% of the participants who preferred walking as the main mode of exercise, 40.2% were females, while only 22.3% were males; whereas, in a study by Evangeline et al [21], 97.6% of the males were seen to prefer walking as the main mode of exercise as compared to 2.4% of the females, which was in contrast with the findings of our study.…”

“…Out of 23.7% of them who did not play any of the following outdoor games, 25.4% were females, while 18.8% were males; whereas, in a study by Evangeline et al [21], 97.6% of the males were engaged in outdoor games compared to 2.4% of the females which was in contrast to the findings of our study. In the current study, females are less engaged in outdoor games.…”

Assessment of Preventable Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Diseases Among Young Population

“…This could be because participants of this age are concerned about their body image and may starve themselves, resulting in malnutrition. Similar findings were found in a study conducted by Evageline Mary et al [25], where 23% of the participants were found to be underweight.…”