Small area method: General health of students

Abstract

Background & Aim: Awareness of adolescents’ general health status is important. The aim of this study was an assessment of general health status by estimating the mean of general health score of high school students in eight counties of Bushehr province in 2014 with small area method. Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, students’ general health score at the counties levels was estimated by small area method. The data were collected based on the general health questionnaire GHQ28) and the accuracy of estimations was measured by using of standard error. Results: The overall estimated mean±standard error of general health score for 138 students, using the synthetic estimation of small area method was 26.65±0.21. The means of general health at eight counties were 26.96, 26.85, 26.41, 26.48, 26.74, 26.76, 26.62 and 27.41, respectively Conclusion: A little difference between the averages and the small standard errors of estimations in eight counties, showed that the synthetic estimator has a high accuracy for estimating the mean of adolescents’ general health scores.

Keywords

• Small area analysis
• General health
• Adolescent
• Students
• Bushehr