Co-occurrence and intercorelation of health risk behaviors among rural primary and middle school students in Jiangxi province

  Objective   To explore the co-occurrence and intercorelation of health risk behaviors among rural primary and middle school students in Jiangxi province.

  Methods  Using stratified cluster random sampling, we recruited 2 284 students at 12 rural primary and middle school students in 6 counties across Jiangxi province for an on-site questionnaire survey during September 2018. Modified Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) in Chinese was adopted in the study.

  Results   Among all the students, the self-reported rate was 29.60% for physical violence, 90.96% for physical inactivity, and 24.96% for poor hygiene habits; of the students, 2.41%, 30.99%, and 7.67% reported ever having one, three, and five or more health risk behaviors. The reported rate of single and multiple risk behaviors differed significantly by gender (χ² = 42.65), schooling grade (χ² = 33.42) and family structure (χ² = 30.21) (P < 0.01 for all). There were positive correlations among the reported rates of various health risk behaviors (P < 0.05 for all).

  Conclusion  The co-existence of health risk behaviors is prevalent and various health risk behaviors are intercorrelated among rural primary and middle school students in Jiangxi province.