Influence of individual and socio-environmental factors on self-rated health in adolescents

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine if individual and socio-environmental characteristics can influence the self-rated health among Brazilian adolescents.METHODS: It included 1,042 adolescents from 11 to 17 years old who participated in the Beagá Health Study (Estudo Saúde em Beagá), a multistage household survey in an urban setting. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the association between the self-rated health and the following explanatory variables: sociodemographic factors, social support, lifestyle, physical and psychological health.RESULTS: Good/very good and reasonable/poor/very poor self-rated health were reported by 88.5 and 11.5% of adolescents, respectively. The data on sociodemographic factors (SES), social support, lifestyle, psychological and physical health were associated with poor self-rated health (p ≤ 0.05). The associated variables were: age 14 - 17 years (OR =1.71; 95%CI 1.06 - 2.74), low SES (OR =1.68; 95%CI 1.05 - 2.69), few (OR = 2.53; 95%CI 1.44 - 4.46) and many quarrels in family (OR = 9.13; 95%CI 4.53 - 18.39), report of unkind and unhelpful peers (OR = 2.21; 95%CI 1.11 - 4.43), consumption of fruits CONCLUSIONS: Poor self-rated health among adolescents was associated with individual and socio-environmental characteristics related to family, school and neighborhood issues. Quantifying the self-rated health according to the theoretical framework of the child's well-being should help in arguing that self-rated health might be a strong indicator of social inequities for the studied population.

Keywords

• Autoavaliação da saúde
• Bem-estar da criança
• Adolescente
• Saúde da população urbana
• Comportamento do adolescente
• Condições sociais
• Relações familiares