A Comparative Study to Assess the Health Behaviour among the Adolescents in Selected Government High Schools of Urban and Rural Areas of Kamrup District, Assam

Introduction: Health behaviour is the activity undertaken by individuals for the purpose of maintaining or enhancing their health, preventing health problems or achieving positive body image. Actions that can be classified as Health Behaviours are many; examples including smoking, substance use, diet, physical activity, sleep, risky sexual activities, health care seeking behaviours and adherence to prescribed medical treatment. Adolescents are the young people aged between 10-19 years. It is a transitional stage of physical, physiological and psychological development. Morbidity and mortality occurring in this age group is mostly due to preventable causes. The heath status of an adolescent determines the health status in his/her adulthood. This comparative study was conducted on the health behaviour among the adolescents of selected government high schools of urban and rural areas of Kamrup District, Assam. Methods: It was a comparative descriptive study. Sample size was 144. Data were collected by using a self structured questionnaire, in the month of March, 2020. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Results: Findings of the present study revealed that in urban area, majority i.e. 63.9% of the adolescents had moderately adequate health Behaviour score while 31.9% had inadequate and 4.2% had adequate Health Behaviour score. In rural area, majority 65.3% had moderately adequate Health Behaviour score while 33.3% had adequate and 1.4% had inadequate Health Behaviour score. Mean score percentage of overall Health Behaviour among urban adolescents was 74.18% and among rural adolescents was 82.40%. Mean score was 89.02 (?6.61) for urban area and 98.88 (?5.90) for rural area. Area wise analysis of Health Behaviour showed that highest mean score was obtained for tobacco use (18.88?1.96) and lowest mean score was obtained for exercise pattern (9.06?2.56) in urban area. In rural area, highest mean score was obtained for tobacco use (19.85?2.91) and lowest mean score was obtained for exercise pattern (10.89?2.14). Comparison of overall Health Behaviour by using unpaired t-test, revealed that there was a significant difference of the overall Health Behaviour among the Adolescents in selected government high schools of urban and rural area. (t=9.44, Pless than 0.001 at 0.05 level of significance). Area wise comparison of Health Behaviour revealed that there was a significant difference of the area wise Health Behaviour among the Adolescents in selected government high schools of urban and rural area. (t= 8.55, Pless than 0.00001 for Nutrition / diet pattern, t=4.66, Pless than 0.00001 for exercise, t=4.12, P=0.00004 for sleep pattern, t= 5.17, Pless than0.00001 for alcohol use, t=2.35, P=0.0196 for tobacco use and t=3.83, P=0.00005 for drug use). No significant association was found between Health Behaviour among the Adolescents and selected demographic variables. Conclusion: On the basis of the findings of the study, in can be concluded that majority of the adolescents had moderately adequate level of Health Behaviour in both urban and rural area. Comparison of Health Behaviour revealed that rural Adolescents had better level of Health Behaviour than their urban counterparts.