Abstract
BackgroundHealth-promoting lifestyle choices of adolescents are closely related to current and subsequent health status. However, parsimonious yet reliable and valid screening tools are scarce. The original 40-item adolescent health promotion (AHP) scale was developed by our research team and has been applied to measure adolescent health-promoting behaviors worldwide. The aim of our study was to examine the psychometric properties of a newly developed short-form version of the AHP (AHP-SF) including tests of its reliability and validity.MethodsThe study was conducted in nine middle and high schools in southern Taiwan. Participants were 814 adolescents randomly divided into two subgroups with equal size and homogeneity of baseline characteristics. The first subsample (calibration sample) was used to modify and shorten the factorial model while the second subsample (validation sample) was utilized to validate the result obtained from the first one. The psychometric testing of the AHP-SF included internal reliability of McDonald’s omega and Cronbach's alpha, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and construct validity with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).ResultsThe results of the CFA supported a six-factor model and 21 items were retained in the AHP-SF with acceptable model fit. For the discriminant validity test, results indicated that adolescents with lower AHP-SF scores were more likely to be overweight or obese, skip breakfast, and spend more time watching TV and playing computer games. The AHP-SF also showed excellent internal consistency with a McDonald’s omega of 0.904 (Cronbach’s alpha 0.905) in the calibration group.ConclusionThe current findings suggest that the AHP-SF is a valid and reliable instrument for the evaluation of adolescent health-promoting behaviors. Primary health care providers and clinicians can use the AHP-SF to assess these behaviors and evaluate the outcome of health promotion programs in the adolescent population.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-1106) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Health-promoting lifestyle choices of adolescents are closely related to current and subsequent health status
Most discussions concerning adolescent health promotion include the topic of improved bio-psychosocial wellbeing, for example, by enhancing regular exercise, nutrition, stress management, spiritual life, and interpersonal relationship behaviors [5,6]
Of the 814 participants, 384 (47%) were males and 430 (53%) females. Most of these adolescents lived with their parents (75%), and the remainder lived either with a single parent or in a school dormitory
Summary
Health-promoting lifestyle choices of adolescents are closely related to current and subsequent health status. Health promotion is defined as a process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. This definition moves beyond a focus on individual behavior toward a wide range of potential social and environmental interventions [1]. The study of adolescent health-promoting behaviors is important, especially because adolescents are at a dynamic transition period bridging childhood to adulthood. This transition is characterized by rapid, interrelated changes in body, mind, and social relationships [4]. Most discussions concerning adolescent health promotion include the topic of improved bio-psychosocial wellbeing, for example, by enhancing regular exercise, nutrition, stress management, spiritual life, and interpersonal relationship behaviors [5,6]
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