A sociological study of adolescent health in Ankara, Turkey.
This study aims to explore the associations between socio-demographic factors and subjective health complaints of adolescents in Turkey. A sample of 248 students in the 8th-grade from four primary schools with different socio-economic family backgrounds completed a questionnaire on their socio-demographic characteristics and health complaints. Findings revealed that adolescents are not homogeneous in terms of their socio-economical backgrounds and infra-structural living conditions. The distribution of illnesses/complaints compared among schools groups, only catching cold was significantly different. Factor analysis results showed that there are three groups of diseases that differ from one another namely psychological, physical and other. Adolescents' perception about their general health varied among the four schools. According to the regression analysis between three factor groups of illness/complains and socio-demographic and personal characteristics of students, only number of children and working status of fathers showed a significant difference among the socio-demographic characteristics, while weight and height among the personal characteristics. Although the first findings suggested that respondents' physical characteristics affected their physical complaints, it seemed that several complaints could also be affected by social and cultural context.
Kasapoğlu
M Aytül
MA
Department of Sociology, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey. kasap@humanity.ankara.edu.tr
Ecevit
Mehmet C
MC
D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D003710:Demography; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012574:Schools; D012938:Social Perception; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology