Study On Relationship Between Adolescent Sub-health And Psychosomatic Health Problems

Objectives This study aims to investigate the relationship between the sub-health and the suicidal psychology and behaviors, the self-injurious behaviors and the tobacco and alcohol use in adolescents, and to evaluate the predictive value of sub-health to physical and psychological health problems within 3 months.Methods Based on the convenient sample principle, questionnaire surveys were carried out on 17 622 students from eight collected cities. Two classes were selected in grade 1 and 2 from middle schools, high schools and universities. Multidimensional Sub-health Questionnaire of Adolescents (MSQA), suicidal psychology and behaviors within one year, self-injurious behaviors within one year, tobacco and alcohol use within one month were investigated. Surveys were repeated among those students 3 months later. A total of 16 171 questionnaires were reclaimed. Suicidal psychology and behaviors, self-injurious behaviors and illness-induced school absenteeism in last 3 months were investigated. Chi-square test was used to compare the rates of sub-health status, suicidal psychology and behaviors, self-injurious behaviors, tobacco and alcohol use, illness-induced school absenteeism and these indexes by various numbers of sub-health symptoms in adolescents.Results The rates of physical, psychological sub-health and psychosomatic sub-health symptoms in boys were 18.8%, 27.1%, and 36.6%, respectively, which were higher than those of girls (17.2%, 25.7% and 34.1%). The rates of physical sub-health, psychological sub-health and psychosomatic sub-health status in boys were 9.0%,9.2% and 8.0%, respectively, which were lower than those of girls (11.8%,11.5% and 10.9%). The rates of physical sub-health, psychological sub-health, psychosomatic sub-health symptoms and status were highest in high schools, lowest in universities. The rates of physical sub-health of adolescents were higher in urban than in rural areas. The rates of suicide ideation, suicide plan and attempted suicide within one year of adolescents were 12.0%, 5.0% and 2.2%, respectively, and the rates of girls were significantly higher than those of boys. The rates of suicidal psychology and behaviors in university were lower than those of in middle and high schools, and were significantly higher in urban than in those of rural adolescents. Beating oneself, pinching oneself, and pulling one's own hair deliberately were common self-injurious behaviors in adolescents. The overall rate of self-injurious behaviors was 17.0%, which was significantly different in inter-grade, but not in gender. The rates of cutting oneself in the urban adolescets were higher than those of the rural adolescets, and the rates of pulling one's own hair were adverse. The rates of tobacco, alcohol use and drunkenness in adolescents were 6.8%, 13.7%, 1.7%, respectively, which were higher in boys than in girls from each group, as well as highest in universities and lowest in middle schools. The rates of smoking in urban adolescents were lower than those of in rural adolescets. The rates of suicidal psychology and behaviors, self-injurious behaviors, tobacco and alcohol use increased as the numbers of symptom of physical sub-health, psychological sub-health and psychosomatic sub-health increased.The rates of illness-induced school absenteeism during the last 3 months were significantly lower in boys (0.21%) than those of in girls (0.24%), as well as highest in universities and urban adolescents. The rates of suicidal psychology and behaviors, self-injurious behaviors and illness-induced school absenteeism within the last three months increased as the numbers of symptom of physical sub-health, psychological sub-health and psychosomatic sub-health increased. Conclusions Sub-health, suicidal psychology and behaviors, self-injurious behaviors and tobacco and alcohol use are common problems in Chinese adolescents. The sub-health status is closely related with the psychosocial and behavior problems. These results confirm the predictive value of sub-health to be a performance indicator of the adolescents'physical and psychological health problems within 3 months. It is important to screen sub-health earlier to promote psychological and physical health of adolescents.