The relationships between sexual risk behaviors and general health risk behaviors among unmarried youth in Thailand.

OBJECTIVES: The prevalence and correlates of sexual risk behaviors among unmarried youth in Thailand are poorly documented. The objectives of this study were to compare the differences in sexual behaviors across age groups and gender and to identify the relationships between sexual risk behaviors and general health risk behaviors among unmarried Thai youth. METHODS: A population-based, nationally representative, cross-sectional survey was conducted between January and March 2013. The Thai version of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 800 unmarried Thai youth. RESULTS: Majority of the respondents (65.9%) had not engaged in any sexual risk behavior, 18.7% had engaged in 2-3 sexual risk behaviors, and only 5.5% had engaged in a single sexual risk behavior. Current sexually active youth had higher risk of participating in physical fights (odds ratio = 3.41, 95% confidence interval = 1.53-7.57), smoking cigarette (odds ratio = 4.05, 95% confidence interval = 1.89-8.67), and drinking alcohol (odds ratio = 2.17, 95% confidence interval = 1.08-4.36). CONCLUSION: Thai youth were more likely to be involved in multiple sexual risk behaviors than a single sexual risk behavior. Physical fighting was the strongest general health risk behavior associated with the sexual risk behaviors, followed by substance abuse.

CHILDREN'S EATING BEHAVIOR QUESTIONNAIRE: FACTORIAL VALIDATION AND DIFFERENCES IN SEX AND EDUCATIONAL LEVEL IN THAI SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN.

The purposes of this study were to test the validity of the Thai version Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) and to describe the variation in eating style among school-age children. This school-based, cross sectional study was conducted in five primary public schools selected from Bangkok and the three regions of Thailand (North, Northeast, South). Six hundred and eighty students from the first and fourth grade classes were included in our study. The CEBQ was used to assess the eating styles among these children. Factor analysis revealed an eight-factor solution accounted for 57.1% of the total variance. Most of the scale items loaded as expected and their factor loadings were comparable to those obtained from the original study in England. The reliability coefficients are all within acceptable ranges (more than 0.7), with the exceptions of the subscales of 'slowness in eating' and 'emotional under eating' with the coefficients of 0.64 and 0.69, respectively. There were some significant differences in eating behaviors between sex and educational level. Boys scored higher on 'enjoyment of food' compared with girls (p<0.05), as well as on 'desire to drink' (p<0.05). Children in Grade 1 scored higher on 'satiety responsiveness' (p<0.001) and 'slowness in eating' (p<0.001) compared with those in Grade 4. This study supported the use of CEBQ as an appropriate tool for measuring the eating behaviors among Thai school-age children.

Health risk behavior among Thai youth: national survey 2013.

This study aims to establish the prevalence of risky health behaviors among Thai youth and to characterize the prevalence of these behaviors by gender, age group, educational status, and region. We analyzed data from a population-based, nationally representative, cross-sectional survey of 938 youth aged between 13 and 24 years, sampled from Bangkok and 4 regions of Thailand. The 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System questionnaire was used to measure youth risk behaviors. This study finds that 15.9% of respondents had engaged in physical fights, and 8.1% had been cyber bullied. The prevalence of current cigarette smoking, alcohol, and marijuana use were 22.3%, 27.9%, and 2.3%, respectively. The prevalence of risky behaviors among Thai youth were found to be high, including behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence, unsafe sexual behaviors, and cigarette and alcohol consumption.

Trends in tobacco use among Thai adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco use continues to be the leading global cause of preventable death. Understanding the trends in prevalence of cigarette smoking and smoking behaviors among adolescents enables physicians to target prevention resources more effectively. OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to monitor the prevalence of smoking, to compare the prevalence of smoking in subgroups of region, gender and age, and to explore smoking behavior among adolescent smokers. MATERIAL AND METHOD: The International Tobacco Control Survey-Thailand is a population-based, national representative, longitudinal survey conducted among adolescents between the ages of 13-17. Adolescents were sampled from Bangkok and 4 regions of Thailand using stratified multistage sampling. Three surveys were conducted during January 2005 to March 2008. Respondents were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Overall, smoking prevalence has increased from 12.0% in wave 1 to 14.3% in wave 2 and 18.3% in wave 3. Smoking prevalence in males was more than 10 times higher than females. Manufactured cigarettes were most frequently used by adolescents. More than 70% of smokers reported that they smoked manufactured cigarettes. Total amount of tobacco use per day increased from wave 1 to wave 3. The proportion of smokers who reported that they bought cigarettes by themselves increased during the follow-up waves (38.3%, 60.9%, 68.2% respectively). More than 20% of smokers reported that they never plan to quit smoking. CONCLUSION: Smoking prevalence among thai adolescents was apparently increased.

Smoking behavior among adolescents in Thailand and Malaysia.

The objective of this study was to examine the smoking behavior among adolescents in Thailand and Malaysia. Population-based, national surveys were conducted among 1,704 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 from Thailand (n = 927) and Malaysia (n = 777). Respondents were selected using multistage cluster sampling. Respondents were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires. Approximately 5% of Thai and Malaysian adolescents were current smokers, while an additional 8.6% of Thai and 8.1% of Malaysian adolescents reported being beginning smokers. On average, Thai smokers reported first smoking a whole cigarette at 14.6 years old (SD = 1.9), while Malaysian smokers at age 13.9 years (SD = 2.2). More than half of Thai smokers (60.4%) reported they bought cigarettes themselves and 29.9% got cigarettes from friends. In Malaysia, most smokers (68.3%) reported they bought cigarettes themselves, only 20.7% got cigarettes from friends. Seventy-six percent of Thai adolescent smokers smoked factory-made brands as their usual brand compared to 27.7% of Malaysian adolescent smokers. Eight percent of Thai adolescents and 10% of Malaysian adolescents reported smoking hand-rolled cigarettes. Approximately half of Thais and more than 40% of Malaysian smokers reported they tried to quit smoking within the past month. The smoking prevalence of Thai adolescents is close to that of Malaysian adolescents. Factory-made cigarette consumption is an important problem in Thai adolescents and needs to be targeted.

Risk factors of tobacco use among Thai adolescents: finding from International Tobacco Control Policy Survey Southeast Asia (ICT-SEA).

OBJECTIVE: To determine the risk factors of tobacco use among Thai adolescents. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 706 adolescents sampled from 5 regions of Thailand using stratified multistage sampling. Participants were asked to complete self-administered questionnaires about tobacco use and psychosocial factors. A logistic regression model of risk factors for tobacco use was estimated using backward stepping. RESULTS: The prevalence of smoking in Thai adolescent was 15 percent (27.8% in males, 2.3% in females). Older age (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.02-1.51), number of close friend smoking (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.35-1.93), number of older sibling smoking (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.01-2.04), heavy alcoholic consumption (OR = 3.99, 95% CI = 1.87-8.49), low self-worth (OR = 3.16, 95% CI = 1.71-5.84) were risk factors of smoking in Thai adolescents. Females (OR = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.04-0.24), currently studying in school (OR = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.18-0.59) and religious beliefs guide actions (OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.22-0.77) were protective factors against smoking. CONCLUSION: Male adolescents are target group for tobacco control in Thailand. The strong correlation between smoking and alcoholic consumption indicate that anti-smoking campaign should be done in parallel with anti-alcohol campaign.