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The Impact of Unhealthy Behaviors on Personalized Well-Being Index in a Sample of School Dropout Adolescents.

Maria Francesca Lodovica LazzeriFrancesca MastorciPaolo PiaggiCristina DoveriAnselmo CasuGabriele TrivelliniIrene MarinaroAndrea BardelliAlessandro Pingitore
Published in: Children (Basel, Switzerland) (2022)
(1) Background: here is a growing need for integrated and multidimensional approaches to health, especially in a particular category of populations, school-dropout (SD) adolescents, who are traditionally more prone to risky behavior. This study aimed to describe the association between possible risk factors (substance use, eating disorders, social addiction) and well-being perception through the application of a personalized well-being index (PWBI) in SD youths. (2) Methods: Data were collected in 450 school-dropout adolescents (19 ± 2 years, male 308); the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and risk behaviors were assessed by means of a battery of standardized questions. (3) Results: The results revealed an altered perception of well-being in association with eating disorders ( p < 0.001), the use of psychotropic drugs ( p < 0.001), and the amount of their consumption ( p < 0.05). In particular, there was a decrease in emotional state ( p < 0.001) and PWBI ( p < 0.001) in the presence of eating disorders, and an impairment in all PWBI components, emotional states ( p < 0.001), lifestyle habits ( p < 0.05), and social contexts ( p < 0.001) when taking psychotropic drugs. (4) Conclusions: risk or unhealthy behaviors significantly worsen individual well-being. This study highlights the change of paradigm from a disease-oriented model to an educationally strength-based model when monitoring psychosocial well-being in order to define preventive and health promotion strategies in a vulnerable category of the population.
Keyphrases
  • physical activity
  • mental health
  • young adults
  • health promotion
  • healthcare
  • risk factors
  • public health
  • cardiovascular disease
  • machine learning
  • single cell
  • weight loss
  • risk assessment
  • high school
  • social media