Implications of Psychological Morbidity on Physical Health and Behavior of Adolescents in Aligarh, India

Abstract

Background: Worldwide, 20% of children and adolescents experience a disabling mental illness, almost half of which begin by the age of 14. Puberty, also marks a transition in risks for depression and other mental disorders, psychosomatic syndromes, and antisocial behavior. The increase in stress during adolescence due to nutritional and pubertal transition may impact physical health and behavior. Objectives: The current study aimed at determining the association between psychological morbidity and nutritional status, as well as the association of psychological morbidity and physical activity, sleep duration, and dietary behavior. Methods: This study was based on a world health organization (WHO) Global School Health Survey (GSHS) conducted on 13-to 15-year-old age group. The study was held at 3 different schools of Aligarh. Strength and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) was used to measure psychological morbidity and its association with obesity, physical activity, sleep duration, and dietary behavior. Results: A total of 1456 students were included in the study and the prevalence of psychological morbidity was 9.75%. Those with psychological morbidity had higher odds for being obese (35.36), physically inactive (1.78), having sleep duration inadequacy (5.42), and poor dietary behavior (7.46) on multivariate analysis. Conclusions: Psychological problems were present in seemingly normal adolescent student population in India. Most of these students and their parents/teachers were either unaware of this problem or thought that these problems were not worthy of attention. The association of these problems with lifestyle, dietary behavior, and physical activity warrants special attention.

Psychosocial problems among school going adolescents in Ghorai sub metropolitan city of Dang

“…6 Various Studies conducted in different parts of the world shows that prevalence of psychosocial problems among adolescents' ranges from 12% to 45%. 3,4,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] There are very limited studies conducted in similar settings on psychosocial problems in Dang and detecting these in the early adolescence can be fruitful for the quality of life of the individual. 7 Thus, the main aim of this study was to assess the magnitude of psychosocial problems among school going adolescents.…”

Hindi Adaptation of Pediatric Symptom Checklist-Youth Version (PSC-Y)

“…Wide variations (i.e. 6.42% to 31.95%) have been reported by Indian researchers regarding the prevalence of psychosocial problems among youth and adolescents [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Gaur et al have reviewed various epidemiological surveys and reported that 20% to 33% of children and adolescents have considerable amount of psychosocial problems [12].…”