Self-rated health of Chinese adolescents: distribution and its associated factors

Aim: Self-rated health is a valid and relevant indicator of individuals' and populations' health status, and has been shown to be a critical predictor of some medical endpoints. The studies concentrating on Chinese adolescents' self-rated health were scarce. The present study aimed to understand the self-rated health and its associated factors of Chinese adolescents.

Methods: Ten schools including junior schools, senior schools and universities of Hefei in Anhui Province of China were randomly selected. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to the selected 5226 students to investigate their demographic variables, sleep quality, self-rated health and degree of depression, anxiety and loneliness. In terms of the instruments, Self-rated Health Measurement Scale Version 1.0, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, UCLA Loneliness Scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Self-rating Anxiety Scale and the demographic survey were used in the present study.

Results: The sleep quality, self-rated health and degree of depression, anxiety and loneliness among different grade levels were different (p < 0.01 or <0.05). The multivariate analysis indicated that young age, poor sleep quality and high degree of depression, anxiety and loneliness were significantly associated with poor self-rated health of adolescents.

Conclusion: The adolescents' poor self-rated health may be attributed to many causes especially the psychological reasons. Future interventions that focus more on the inner causes may be the better steps to make adolescents healthy.