Lifestyle Practices and Mental Health in Adolescents: Explorative Analysis from Malaysian Health and Morbidity Survey 2017

Abstract

Many significant psychosocial problems may go undetected and untreated in adolescents. We aim to determine the prevalence of high-risk behaviors among Malaysian adolescents. Retrospective data analysis was performed using data from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2017 report. The dataset included 27,497 responses from adolescents aged 13 to 17 years old from five established topographic zones: northern peninsular, east coast peninsular, southern peninsular, central, and east Malaysia. The strength of associations between selected high-risk behaviors and different topographical zones were performed using logistic regression analysis. Adolescents from the northern peninsular reported the highest prevalence of suicidal attempt (27.1%) and active drug user (30.1%). The same region reported the highest prevalence of those who ever had sexual intercourse (SI) (27.2%), with 32.5% who had their first SI before 14 years old, while east Malaysia reported the highest prevalence of current smokers (26.1%) and current alcohol consumers (30.6%). Overall poor lifestyle choices were evident in the northern peninsular region. Hence, specific districts breakdown may enable targeted interventional lifestyle strategies for adolescents at risk.