Prevalence, attitude, and factors associated with risky health habits and behavior of secondary school students, Almajardah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Adolescents make up to 20% of the world’s population. However, they have traditionally been neglected as a distict target group and subsumed under the proportion of family, women, and child’s welfare and health. Objective: To study the prevalence of and attitude toward selected health-risk behaviors (smoking, alcoholism, substance abuse, and violence) and their possible associated risk factors among secondary school students, Almajardah, KSA. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study among male Saudi adolescents enrolled in secondary schools at Almajardah city during the scholastic years 1434–1435. Data were collected using an Arabic-validated self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on State and Local Youth Risk Behavior survey and Global School-based Student Health survey. Result: The study included 442 male secondary school students. Their age ranged between 16 and 22 years with a mean of 17.8 and standard deviation of 1.1 years. More than one-third of the studied students (36.9%) reported at least one history of quarrel (violence) during the last year, and 8.4% of them required medical and/or hospital care as a result of quarreling. Thirty-seven students (8.4%) carried an arm at school during the last month. Smoking was reported by 22.6% of the studied students. Almost one-sixth (16.5%) of the students used to drink alcohol, and 4.1% of them reported having done it all the days of the last month. About one-sixth (16.7%) of the students were taking addictive substances. The substances used were mostly hashish and sedatives (59.5% and 40.5%, respectively). Student’s academic achievement was negatively predicted by all of the studied risky practices. Students’ age and their paternal education and/or job were among the important predictors for practicing risky behaviors. Conclusion: Secondary school male students in Almajardah, KSA, have a number of risky behaviors. The most important one is violence. Although alcohol drinking, smoking, and use of addictive substances are less, they constitute a major concern. Almost 38% of the studied students did not practice any risky behavior. Safety practices are lacking, and the rates of exposure to accidents or injuries are high.