Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Abstract

Statement of the Problem: Health behaviors currently are associated with better quality of life. School-age children are at risk period to adapt their environment in doing healthy risk behaviors. This observational study was to describe the health behaviors and examine the associations of quality of life from school-age children.

Method: Health behaviors (i.e., eating habit, physical activity, smoking, drinking alcohol, sexual behavior, violence, school behavior and social life) were examined at 200 school-age children in Junior High School 01 Teluk Naga Tangerang using Indonesian Health Behavior School-age children questionnaire and also using PedsQL questionnaire, which measures four domains of quality of life (physical functions, mental status, social and school functions).

Results: School-age children showed high prevalence of eating habit (n=65%), less physical activity (38.5%), smoking (n=23.5%), drinking alcohol (n=27.5%), sexual behavior (31.0%), violence (45%), economy status (32.5%), school perception (26.5%) and social life (31.5%). In addition, this study revealed that school-age children have prevalence in good physical functions (47%), mental status (42%), social (58%) and school functions (43.5%). In a multivariate model, health behavior (physical activity, smoking, sexual behavior, social activity and violence) (P<0.05) were dominantly correlated with quality of life.

Conclusion: The current study provides significant information on how health risk behavior influenced the quality of life and this study has the potential to develop better health education and promotion program in school-age children.

Biography

E-mail: gisely@esaunggul.ac.id