Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine
Volume 17, Issue 5, 2012, Pages 385-393

Lack of health risk awareness in low-income Chinese youth migrants: Assessment and associated factors (Article) (Open Access)

Shi Y. , Ji Y. , Sun J. , Wang Y. , Sun X. , Li C. , Wang D. , Chang C.*
  • a Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
  • b Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
  • c School of Public Health, Griffith University, Meadowbrook, Q4131, Australia
  • d Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
  • e Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
  • f Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
  • g Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China
  • h Department of Social Medicine and Health Education, Health Science Center, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China

Abstract

Objective: To analyze and assess health risk awareness of youth migrants in China and the factors that influence it, and to provide evidence for making health promotion interventions and decreasing health risks among Chinese youth migrants. Method: This was a cross-sectional survey conducted in 2009 among rural-to-urban migrants aged 15-24 years in Tianjin and Xi'an, China. A total of 1,838 youth migrants were enrolled by the stratified cluster sampling method. An anonymous questionnaire was self-administered to investigate health risk awareness. The t test and χ2 test were used to analyze differences between different groups. Logistic regression analysis was used to test the influence of various sociodemographic, living condition, and occupational factors. Results: The smoking rate of men (66.8%) was higher than that of women (6.8%; P<0.05), the rate of sexual intercourse in men was higher than in women (56.8 vs 27.7%; P<0.05), and 75.7% of participants had written into medical care systems with 40.4% of them having undergone a physical examination during the last year. Only 438 of the participants (26% of 1,647) were considered to have a satisfactory level of health risk awareness [273 (32.4% of 958) from Tianjin and 165 (28.8% of 689) from Xi'an]. No significant difference was found between the youth migrant populations of the two cities. The percentage of youth migrants with a satisfactory level of health risk awareness who thought they had a good health status was higher than that with an unsatisfactory health risk awareness who thought they had a good health status (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that gender, age, education, reading the newspaper, and occupation significantly influenced on health risk awareness. Conclusion: Youth migrants in China have a low health risk awareness. Combined and targeted health education interventions should be promoted to increase their health risk awareness. © The Japanese Society for Hygiene 2012.

Author Keywords

youth Health risk Health promotion migrant Health education

Index Keywords

urban area China rural area Chinese health promotion lowest income group demography poverty human sex difference social aspect health status Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Logistic Models Health Surveys Cross-Sectional Studies Young Adult hygiene cross-sectional study Humans smoking Adolescent male Chi-Square Distribution self evaluation female Risk Factors Multivariate Analysis questionnaire Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Article health care utilization Questionnaires awareness adult migration occupational health Transients and Migrants health hazard medical care occupational hazard attitude to health satisfaction Health Services Accessibility health survey
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84869487761&doi=10.1007%2fs12199-012-0264-z&partnerID=40&md5=833e7368ac7f8be77578ccbdb723552d
DOI: 10.1007/s12199-012-0264-z
ISSN: 1342078X
Cited by: 11
Original Language: English