Patterns of and Prevention Strategies for Health Risk Behaviours among In- School Adolescents in Jigawa State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The patterns of and prevention strategies for health risk behaviours among in-school adolescents in Jigawa State was investigated as a basis for formulating health risk behaviour prevention strategies. The study utilized descriptive survey design. The population of the study consisted of 159,586 in-school adolescents in Jigawa state secondary Schools. A sample of 3,192 students representing 2 per cent of the population participated in the study. Multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted to draw the sample from the population. Three instruments were used for data collection. These were a 55-item In-School Adolescent Health Risk Behaviours Questionnaire referred to as ISAHRBQ which was adapted from the 2013- National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey Questionaire–YRBSQ-2013, the 12-item researcher developed In-School Adolescent Health Risk Behaviour Focus Group Discussion Guide referred to as ISAHRBFGDG and In-School Adolescent Health Risk Behaviour Prevention Strategies Evaluation Questionnaire (ISAHRBPSEQ).Spearman Brown Prophecy Formula was employed to establish the reliability index of the ISAHRBQ and ISAHRBPSEQ. The reliability coefficients of 0.80 for ISAHRBQ and 0.94 for ISAHRBPSEQ were determined through Spearman Brown Prophecy statistic. Data from the 2886 copies of the returned ISAHRBQ and 28 copies for ISAHRBPSEQ were analyzed. Research questions one to eleven and thirteen were analyzed using mean and standard deviations, while research question 12 was analyzed using frequency and percentages. The null hypotheses two and four were tested using t-test statistics while hypotheses one, three and five were tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and hypothesis six was tested using Chi-square, all at .05 level of significance. The findings of the study indicated that in-school adolescents never exhibited health risk behaviours (HRBs) like substance use (1.05 ± 0.30), unsafe sex (1.01± 0.18), violence (1.48 ± 0.65) and suicidal (1.16 ± 0.35) behaviours. While healthy nutrition (2.07 ± 0.89) and bullying (2.28 ±1.13) behaviours were rarely exhibited. The Findings further revealed that there were significant differences (p > 0.05) in the mean score rating of in- school adolescents regarding all the HRBs according to age. There were significant differences(p > 0.05) in the mean scores of in- school adolescents regarding sexual, physical activity, nutritional, violent and suicidal behaviours according to gender. There were significant differences (p > 0.05) in the mean scores of in- school adolescents regarding all the HRBs according to class. There were significant differences (p > 0.05) in the mean scores of in- school adolescents regarding substance use, sexual, physical activity, violent and suicidal behaviours according to location. There were significant differences (p > 0.05) in the mean scores of in- school adolescents regarding all the HRBs according to school type. In-school adolescents significantly differed (p > 0.05) in their HRBs according to temporal variations. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the mean score rating regarding substance use behaviours of in- school adolescents according to gender. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the mean scores of in-school adolescents regarding nutritional behaviours according to location. Recommendation such as implementation of Health Risk Behaviour Prevention strategies in Jigawa State schools was made.