Health profile of urban adolescent girls from India
-
Monika Madaan
,
Swati Agrawal
Abstract
Context: Adolescents comprise 22.5% of the population, which forms a significant part of the entire population. It is only recently that we have acknowledged the need for a separate specialty to handle adolescent problems and ailments.
Aims: The aim of the present study is to study the health profile of the adolescents girls presenting to the tertiary care hospital situated in New Delhi, India.
Materials and methods: The study was conducted on 316 adolescent girls who presented to the adolescent clinic at Smt Sucheta Kriplani Hospital, New Delhi. Apart from recording the various health problems to which they presented, a detailed HEADSS assessment was done for each case.
Results: Majority of the adolescents (60.74%) presented with menstrual problems, 78.48% discussed their problems with their parents, and 91.77% agreed on common things with them. About 69.62% were attending school or college, while 30.37% had either left or never attended school. Majority of the adolescents (77.84%) had only a few friends, 62.96% watched TV in their free time, and only 7.27% performed regular exercise. In addition, 0.94% adolescents in the study group were married. Among the 313 unmarried adolescents, 3.83% were dating and 4.47% were sexually active. There was a low incidence of teenage pregnancy (0.94%) reported in the unmarried study population. History of contraceptive use was present in only 1.26% cases, and only 5.06% of the adolescents had knowledge of HIV.
Conclusions: Adolescent health must be viewed with a comprehensive approach comprising of social, mental, physical and emotional aspects. The active involvement of the entire society, including parents and teachers, must also be encouraged towards the healthy development of adolescents.
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©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- To precribe or not to prescribe antibiotics
- Review
- A systematic review of transition readiness and transfer satisfaction measures for adolescents with chronic illness
- Original articles
- Prevalence of health risk behaviors and their associated factors among university students in Kyrgyzstan
- Heavy Internet use and its associations with health risk and health-promoting behaviours among Thai university students
- Dyslipidemia and hyperinsulinemia in children and adolescents with chronic liver disease: relation to disease severity
- A cross-national study to compare the knowledge, attitudes, perceptions of sexually transmitted diseases and the sexual risk behaviors of Latino adolescents
- University students and the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in Uganda: The Crane Survey
- Concurrent and simultaneous polydrug use among young Swiss males: use patterns and associations of number of substances used with health issues
- Sexual behavior of in-school adolescents in Osun State, Southwest Nigeria: a comparative study
- Health profile of urban adolescent girls from India
- Age of first reported sexual experience among U.S. soldiers
- Prehypertension and associated factors among university students in the Philippines
- School-based intervention to promote healthy nutrition in Sousse, Tunisia
- Awareness, acceptability, and use of female condoms among university students in Nigeria: implications for STI/HIV prevention
- Clustering of risk factors in the smoking habits of schoolchildren in Sousse, Tunisia
- Self-esteem in adolescents with chronic physical illness vs. controls in Northern Russia
- Gender differences in the mental health literacy of young people
- Case reports
- An adolescent with chronic giardiasis mimicking anorexia nervosa
- Treatment of refractory substance-induced psychosis in adolescent males with a genetic predisposition to mental illness
- Book Review
- A clinical handbook in adolescent medicine. A guide for health professionals who work with adolescents and young adults
