Association Between Psychosocial Problems and Unhealthy Health Behavior Patterns Among Finnish Adolescents
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Association Between Psychosocial Problems and Unhealthy Health Behavior Patterns Among Finnish Adolescents Kaisa Marttila‑Tornio1 · Heidi Ruotsalainen1 · Jouko Miettunen2 · Niko Männikkö1 · Maria Kääriäinen1
© The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The aim of the study was to investigate how psychosocial problems in childhood and adolescence associate with an unhealthy health behavior pattern among adolescents in Northern Finland. The study population consisted of 4350 participants, drawn from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 Study. Health behavior patterns were assessed in adolescence and psychosocial problems in childhood and adolescence. Logistic regression analyses were performed to determine the associations. Several psychosocial problems predicted greater likelihood of engaging in unhealthy health behavior pattern. Externalizing problems in childhood predicted greater likelihood of engaging in unhealthy behavior patterns for girls. For both genders, externalizing problems and inattention in adolescence were associated with unhealthy health behavior patterns. Boys and girls with externalizing problems both in childhood and adolescence had an increased risk of unhealthy patterns. Psychosocial problems contribute to unhealthy lifestyles and should therefore be acknowledged when designing and targeting health promotion strategies aimed at adolescents. Keywords Adolescence · Childhood · Health behavior · Health behavior pattern · Psychosocial problems
Introduction According to WHO, 60% of all deaths globally are caused by non-communicable diseases, and this figure is estimated to increase in the future. Non-communicable diseases are largely preventable by promoting healthy lifestyles that tackle unhealthy health behaviors [1]. Children and adolescents should be considered as an important target group for health promotion efforts since persistent health behaviors begin to solidify in adolescence [2] and thus create lifelong implications for individuals’ health and wellbeing [3]. Unhealthy health behaviors of adolescents increase the likelihood of poorer health both when young and in later years, making adolescents’ unhealthy lifestyles a global concern [4]. Health behaviors are identified as overt behavioral patterns, actions, and habits that relate to health maintenance, * Kaisa Marttila‑Tornio [email protected] 1
Research Unit of Nursing Science and Health Management, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
Center for Life Course Health Research, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
2
to health restoration, and to health improvement [5]. Health behaviors, unhealthy behaviors included, do not occur in isolation but rather cluster together. To inform a more comprehensive approach to adolescents’ health behaviors and health promotion procedures, it is important to examine patterns of health behaviors instead of just concentrating on individual health behaviors as has hitherto been largely the case [6–8]. Health behaviors cluster in complex ways, a fact which has been shown in many pre
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