Do adolescents attending Bandar Mas Primary Care Clinic consult health professionals for their common health problems?
The aims of the study were to determine the prevalence of the common health problems namely acne, overweight, smoking and depressive symptoms among adolescents attending a primary healthcare clinic, whether they seek treatment for these problems and the reasons for not consulting health professionals. It was a clinic-based, crosssectional study. All adolescents aged 13 to 20 years who attended the clinic during the study period were included in the study. The respondents were given self-administered questionnaires and their weights were measured to assess if they had the above disorders. A total of 215 adolescents were included in the study. The proportion of adolescents who had acne were 70.7%, overweight 8.9%, smoking 41.9% and depressive symptoms 9.8%. Only 25% of those who had acne, 47% of those who were overweight, 9.5% who had depressive symptoms and none of those who smoked had ever sought treatment for these problems. The common reasons given for not consulting the health professionals were 'did not consider it as a problem', 'shy' and 'thought there was no treatment available'. The majority of the adolescents who attended the clinic did not consult health professionals the above common health problems. It is important to educate them on these disorders and encourage health-seeking behaviour in adolescents.
Khairani
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O
Department of Family Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Zaiton
S
S
Faridah
M N
MN
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies