1. Clustering of health-related behaviors among early and mid-adolescents in Tuscany: results from a representative cross-sectional study.
- Author
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Lazzeri, Giacomo, Pammolli, Andrea, Simi, Rita, Giacchi, Mariano Vincenzo, Panatto, Donatella, Domnich, Alexander, Arata, Lucia, Amicizia, Daniela, and Gasparini, Roberto
- Subjects
AGE distribution ,CLUSTER analysis (Statistics) ,CONFIDENCE intervals ,FACTOR analysis ,HEALTH behavior in adolescence ,RESEARCH funding ,SEX distribution ,CROSS-sectional method ,DATA analysis software ,DESCRIPTIVE statistics - Abstract
Background A huge amount of literature suggests that adolescents' health-related behaviors tend to occur in clusters, and the understanding of such behavioral clustering may have direct implications for the effective tailoring of health-promotion interventions. Despite the usefulness of analyzing clustering, Italian data on this topic are scant. This study aimed to evaluate the clustering patterns of health-related behaviors. Methods The present study is based on data from the Health Behaviors in School-aged Children (HBSC) study conducted in Tuscany in 2010, which involved 3291 11-, 13- and 15-year olds. To aggregate students' data on 22 health-related behaviors, factor analysis and subsequent cluster analysis were performed. Results Factor analysis revealed eight factors, which were dubbed in accordance with their main traits: 'Alcohol drinking', 'Smoking', 'Physical activity', 'Screen time', 'Signs & symptoms', 'Healthy eating', 'Violence' and 'Sweet tooth'. These factors explained 67% of variance and underwent cluster analysis. A six-cluster κ-means solution was established with a 93.8% level of classification validity. The between-cluster differences in both mean age and gender distribution were highly statistically significant. Conclusions Health-compromising behaviors are common among Tuscan teens and occur in distinct clusters. These results may be used by schools, health-promotion authorities and other stakeholders to design and implement tailored preventive interventions in Tuscany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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