Frequency and correlations of health risk behaviours of secondary school students in Vojvodina

Aim To determine frequency, intercorrelation of health-riskbehaviour among secondary school students and influence ofsources of health-related information and social behaviour modelson them.Methods The reasearch was conducted in the form of a cross-sectional study. A sample included students from 1st to 4thgrades of nursing and technical secondary schools in Sombor.Data were collected by interviewing students with a questionnaireconsisting of two parts: Risk Behaviour Scale and setof questions about sources of information, social behaviourmodels and socio-demographic characteristics. Risk BehaviourScale measured the following health-risk behaviors: risk behaviourin traffic, risk sexual behavior, unhealthy dietary habitsand physical inactivity. Values p <0.05 were taken as statisticallysignificant.Results Sample included 410 secondary school students aged15 to 19. The most dominant health risk behaviour was risksexual behaviour with more than a third of students, 138 (34.9%) who had had sexual intercourse. Two patterns of health riskbehaviour were found, first included risk sexual and risk behaviourin traffic (p=0.00) and the second one included unhealthydietary habits and physical inactivity (p=0.00). Gender,age, type of school, school achievment, material status, healthrelatedinformation and social behaviour models significantlyinfluenced certain hrealth risk behaviours among adolescents.Conclusion The most frequent health risk behaviour amongsecondary school students was risk sexual behaviour. Healthrisk behaviours were significantly intercorrelated showing twopatterns, one including risk sexual and risk behaviour in trafficand other one including unhealthy dietary habits and physicallyinactivity. This could be a consequence of same factorswhich contribute to these behaviours.