Assessment of healthy behaviors among high school students in el-bayda city Libya

the objectives of the study was to assess the health-risk behaviors which include, diet, obesity, physical activity, tobacco use and internet addiction among El-Bayda city adolescent students boys and girls aged 15 to 19 years old, in public and private schools and, detect the effect of some sociodemographic determinants on the adolescents health behaviors. In this cross-sectional study data was collected via modified Arabic Jordan Global School-Based Student Health Survey Questionnaire in addition to some nutrition, socio-economic, internet addiction and sources of health knowledge questions. Furthermore, measuring of student's weight and height were performed to calculate their Body Mass Index (BMI). The questionnaire was conducted to 1624 students through school visits. Data was interred and analyzed using the SPSS version 23. Descriptive statistics and analysis chi square test were performed. A p-value <0.05 was considered as the level of significance. The descriptive statistics showed that 79.6 % of the students were belonged to nuclear families, half of the students (54.3%) belonged to fathers who were 45-54 years of age, 41.7% of students their father education level were university & over and 44.1% of fathers were office workers. About 55.0% of mothers were at the age of 40-49 years, 45.1% of mothers were university & over educated and 51.0% of mothers were housewives. The study found that students have unhealthy dietary behaviors such as consuming insufficient amount of fruits, vegetables, and milk; but consuming soft drinks, fast foods and sweets. The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity was (17.8%, 9.1% respectively). Prevalence of physical activity at least 60 minutes/day in the last 7 days was 9.0%. More than one third (34.0%) of the students have tried smoking. The overall current smoking was 12.5%; about 18.7% have tried water pipe smoking and 6.2% were current water pipe smokers. Moreover, the study found that about 8.9% of the students had severe internet addiction. There was significant difference between boys and girls regarding these risk behaviors. Boys ate more daily breakfast, vegetables, soft drinks, fast foods; girls drank more milk, ate more fruits, and sweets. Boys were more physically active than girls (11.0%, 5.0%). Boys smoked more than girls (18.8%, 2.6%). Girls were more addicted on the internet than boys (11.7%, 6.7%). Adolescent's eating habits were associated to mother's education, father's education and family income. Physical activity was associated to family income. Smoking was associated to family income and father's education. Internet addiction was associated to father's education and number of siblings. As this study was the first to be conducted among adolescent, further studies that include intervention programs are needed to promote healthy behaviors among adolescents.