Clustering of health and oral health-compromising behaviours among adolescents in Kedah / Nurul Izzah Ali
Health behaviours tend to cluster together among individual. Research has shown that health-compromising behaviours, for example smoking and high sugar consumption; and oral health-compromising behaviours, such as poor tooth brushing frequency and irregular dental attendance, tend to cluster toge...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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2019
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| Online Access: | http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/11704/ http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/11704/4/izzah.pdf |
| Summary: | Health behaviours tend to cluster together among individual. Research has shown that
health-compromising behaviours, for example smoking and high sugar consumption;
and oral health-compromising behaviours, such as poor tooth brushing frequency and
irregular dental attendance, tend to cluster together in specific patterns. Co-occurrence
of multiple health and oral health-compromising behaviours increases the risk of
mortality and morbidity. Studies also reported that those behaviours commonly start
during adolescence and can extend into adulthood. This study aimed to determine the
prevalence, the clustering pattern of health and oral health-compromising behaviours
amongst selected adolescents in Kedah, and its determining factors. A cross-sectional
study that employed a stratified cluster random sampling method was conducted among
selected adolescents aged 13 and 16 years old, who attended public and private schools
in four districts in Kedah. Validated self-administered questionnaires were distributed to
assess multiple health and oral health-compromising behaviours namely dietary intake,
physical activity and sedentary behaviour, smoking status, alcohol consumption, drug
use, physical fighting, bullying, use of electronic media communication, frequency of
tooth brushing, use of fluoridated toothpaste, and flossing behaviour. Using the
Statistical Program for Social Sciences version 23, the descriptive statistics, Phi
pairwise correlations, Hierarchical Agglomerative Cluster Analysis (HACA), and
Poisson regression analysis were performed. A total of 2983 respondents completed this
survey, which comprised of females (54.1%), Malays (86.9%), and those who studied in
the public schools (67.2%) and resided in urban areas (53.8%). Most of the respondents
had low milk/milk products intake (89%), were physically inactive (81%), had poor oral
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health behaviours (79.9%), ate inadequate vegetables (72%) and fruits (53.1%) intake,
had high sugar intake (58.7%) and sedentary behaviours (57.1%). Two broad clusters of
health-compromising behaviours were identified. The first cluster named as high risk
behaviours, consists of respondents with high acidic food intake, low intake of plain
water, high social media addiction, smokers, alcohol and drug users, and had been
involved in bullying and physical fighting. The second cluster named as poor adherence
to preventive behaviours, included respondents with high sugar intake, low intake of
vegetables, fruits and milk/milk products, poor oral health behaviours, had sedentary
behaviours, were physically inactive and were breakfast skippers. In term of clustering
count, almost one-fifth of respondents had seven (22%), six (21.3%) and eight (16.8%)
health and oral health-compromising behaviours. Mean clustering count of health and
oral health-compromising behaviours was significantly differed by gender (p=<0.001)
and parental educational levels (p=<0.001), and was significantly associated with life
satisfaction (p=<0.001) and self-confidence (p=<0.001) of the respondents. Age,
mother’s educational level, life satisfaction and self-confidence were the factors
associated with the mean clustering count of health and oral health-compromising
behaviours. Health intervention programme for adolescent should focus on a cluster of
risky behaviours and its associated factors. |
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