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Adolescent Health in Hong Kong: Disturbing Socio-Demographic Correlates

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Abstract

Relationships between self-assessed health status and socio-demographic variables were examined among 4,502 Chinese adolescent secondary school students in Hong Kong, a modern society with traditional Chinese ethno-cultural origin. Health status was self-rated in four aspects: overall health, physical health, mental health, and health effects on usual activities. In both the bivariate and multivariate analyses, there was health advantage for adolescent males relative to females, and there were inverse relationships between health level and age/level of study, in all four health aspects. Family structure was an important risk factor for all health aspects. Two-parent family was associated with significantly higher health levels than those living with father only, or with no parent/single parent and other adults, but not those living with mother only. Mainland-born adolescents had higher risks of low health level than the local-born in the aspect of overall health status. Finally economically well-being was associated with lower level of mental health.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Research Committee. We are grateful to two synonymous referees for their comments and suggestions which considerably improved the quality of the paper.

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  1. Department of Applied Mathematics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Y. K. Kwan & W. C. Ip

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  1. Y. K. Kwan
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  2. W. C. Ip
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Correspondence to W. C. Ip.

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Kwan, Y.K., Ip, W.C. Adolescent Health in Hong Kong: Disturbing Socio-Demographic Correlates. Soc Indic Res 91, 259–268 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9281-0

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