title: Lifestyle and Addictive Behaviors Among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, Wuhan, and Zhuhai-a First Cross-subculture Assessment.
abstract: This study aimed at assessing the differences in prevalence rates of common health behavior among adolescents in the five Chinese cities and the influential factors at the contextual and individual levels.
  
  
  
  We compared the standardized rates of three lifestyle behaviors (sedentary, dietary, and physical activity) and three addictive behaviors (cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and participation in gambling) among a sample of 13,950 adolescents. The sample was randomly selected from five cities, including Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, Zhuhai, and Wuhan. Population size, GDP per capita, and literacy at the city level as well as parental monitoring and school performance at the student's level were assessed. Multi-level mixed effect models were used to examine the interaction of individual level factors with study sites.
  
  
  
  The six health behaviors differed significantly across sites with the highest rates of alcohol consumption in Hong Kong (39.5 %), of cigarette smoking in Macau (9.8 %), and of gambling in Taipei (37.1 %) and Hong Kong (35.9 %). The city-level measures were associated with only a few behavioral measures. Relative to Hong Kong, parental monitoring had stronger association with the three addictive behaviors in the other sites.
  
  
  
  Findings suggest that although the study sites share similar Chinese culture, students in the five cities differed from each other with regard to levels of health behaviors. Relative to the broad socioeconomic development, differences in parental monitoring played a significant role in explaining the observed difference.
authors.affiliation: University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: Xinguang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Maggie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, Hong Kong. mingyuekan@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ming Yue
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Kan
authors.affiliation: Yuanpei University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: I-Chyun
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.affiliation: National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yih-Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Wuhan Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macau, China.
authors.forename: Lue
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: King-Lun
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Ngok
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D044466:Asian People; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008256:Macau; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Addictive behavior; Adolescence; Chinese culture; Cross-subcultural research; Lifestyle behavior; Multilevel modeling