Health of Youth in Transition in Hong Kong

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the impact of individual (level of vigorous physical activity (VPA) and frequency of using sports and recreation facilities), interpersonal (perceived social cohesion (PSC)), and neighborhood environmental (availability of sports and recreation facilities) factors on youths’ health in transition in Hong Kong. A sample of 508 individuals aged 17–23 years from all Hong Kong council districts randomly completed validated questionnaires by telephone survey. Of 508,302 individuals with complete data pertaining to address geocoding were selected for further analyses. Overall, more than half of them (56.3%) used sports and recreation facilities once per month or less. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationship among the studies’ constructs. The results indicated that the proposed model sufficiently fitted the data (χ2 (24) = 32.23, p < 0.12; CFI = 0.977; SRMR = 0.051; RMSEA = 0.034 (90% CI = 0.000 to 0.061). However, two items of PSC were sequentially removed due to their low standardized factor loadings (<0.3). A structural model was reinserted into data analyses, and the modified model fitted the data well as indicated by fit indices (χ2 (11) = 15.29, p < 0.17; CFI = 0.987; SRMR = 0.054; RMSEA = 0.036 (90% CI = 0.000 to 0.075). Only VPA (β = 0.27, p = 0.0005) and PSC (β = 0.12, p = 0.048) were significantly related to perceived health at an individual level. To promote youth health, the Hong Kong government may work with the business sector, community groups, or education institutions to develop community programs to keep youths active (especially VPA) and to build more cohesive, trustful relationships among youths in the neighborhood.