Relationship between body type, subjective symptoms and health awareness in junior high school students

This study investigated the relationship between body type, subjective symptoms and health awareness among junior high school students. The subjects were 410 students (208 males and 202 females) at a junior high school in Okayama City. The survey was conducted in May, 1992. The results obtained were as follows. 1. As to the level of health awareness, those who consider themselves healthy account for 11.7%, generally healthy, 65.1% and little unhealthy, 23.2%. 2. The average Rohrer Index was 125.8 (+/-18.1). Comparison between both sexes revealed that the average was significantly higher for females. 3. In the case of body type classification based on the Rohrer Index, obesity type was 12.4%, standard type was 73.4% and Iptosomic type was 14.2%. 4. The percentage of persons complaining of any of the 30 subjective symptoms was 20.2%, and the average number of symptoms for the individual respondent was 6.1 (+/-5.2). 5. The leptosomic type showed a tendency toward more subjective symptoms than the standard type. 6. Those with more subjective symptoms or obesity and leptosomic type showed a tendency toward a sense of a little unhealthy in level of health awareness.