Family Related Variables' Influences on Adolescents' Health Based on Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Database, an AI-Assisted Scoping Review, and Narrative Synthesis

Parenting Practices and Psychosomatic Complaints Among Swedish Adolescents

Objectives: Parent-adolescent relationships play a crucial role in youth development. This study examines the associations between parenting practices (parental support, knowledge, and rule-setting) and psychosomatic complaints across middle and late adolescence. Methods: The study utilised data from a Swedish national cohort (n = 3,678). Participants completed self-report questionnaires in 2017 (∼15-16 years) and again in 2019 (∼17-18 years). Results: Parental support exhibited the strongest and most consistent inverse cross-sectional associations with psychosomatic complaints during both middle and late adolescence. Furthermore, increases in parental support and parental knowledge were associated with decreases in adolescent psychosomatic complaints. However, parental support and knowledge at age 15-16 were not prospectively associated with psychosomatic complaints at age 17-18. Conclusion: These findings underscore the importance of ongoing parental engagement, particularly in terms of providing constant support, throughout middle and late adolescence.

Differential Associations of Sports Participation With Self-Rated Health and Depressive Symptoms Among Japanese Adolescents

INTRODUCTION

We aimed to evaluate the associations of sports participation with self-rated health and depressive symptoms in a nationally representative sample of Japanese adolescents.

METHODS

A questionnaire survey was conducted with 1,658 adolescents aged between 12 and 21 years. Sports participation levels were divided into high-frequency, moderate-frequency, low-frequency, and no-participation groups. Self-rated health was evaluated using a four-grade scale. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Japanese version of the Patient Health Questionnaire-8. Other lifestyle behaviors were also surveyed. The associations of sports participation with self-rated health and depressive symptoms were examined using multiple logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

The participants in the high- (odds ratio (OR), 0.45) and moderate-frequency (OR, 0.46) groups were less likely to self-report poor health than those in the non-participation group. By contrast, a U-shaped association was found between sports participation and depression, in which the participants in the moderate-frequency group (OR, 0.52) were less likely to have depressive symptoms. The OR for the high- (0.89) and low-frequency (0.91) groups were not significant. Furthermore, eating regular breakfasts, six or more days/week, and having shorter screen times of less than two hours/day were negatively associated with poor self-reported health and depressive symptoms.

CONCLUSION

Moderate- to high-frequency sports activities are associated with a reduced risk of poor self-rated health among Japanese adolescents. However, only moderate-frequency activities were associated with a reduced risk of depression. Participation in optimal sports activities may effectively lower the risk of poor health in adolescents.

"It Doesn't Cure, but It Protects": COVID-19 Vaccines through the Eyes of Children and Their Parents

Recently, studies have examined COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and/or hesitancy amongst adult populations across the globe. However, there is a paucity of literature illustrating children's voices in vaccination debates. This article draws on qualitative data collected via a mixed-methods study that explored South Africans' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2021. Interviews were conducted with a purposive sample (N = 29) of children (>18 years) and their parents regarding their initial perspectives on COVID-19 vaccines. Given the dyadic nature of our study, we explored the intergenerational influence that parents' perspectives had on children's vaccine acceptability and the role that vaccine literacy, or lack thereof, played in vaccine decision making. Findings showed a great level of vaccine acceptability among children and parents, where many placed hopes in the vaccines to promote societal health and wellbeing. Intergenerational transfer of perspectives was observed where children's willingness to receive a vaccine was intrinsically linked to their parents' vaccine acceptability. Some participants also expressed concerns about COVID-19 vaccines, related to misinformation, mistrust, and limited vaccine literacy. We discuss the findings as they relate to vaccine and health literacy, also considering the prospective implications of this work as we enter the "recovery" period of the pandemic.

Artificial intelligence in systematic reviews: promising when appropriately used

BACKGROUND

Systematic reviews provide a structured overview of the available evidence in medical-scientific research. However, due to the increasing medical-scientific research output, it is a time-consuming task to conduct systematic reviews. To accelerate this process, artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in the review process. In this communication paper, we suggest how to conduct a transparent and reliable systematic review using the AI tool 'ASReview' in the title and abstract screening.

METHODS

Use of the AI tool consisted of several steps. First, the tool required training of its algorithm with several prelabelled articles prior to screening. Next, using a researcher-in-the-loop algorithm, the AI tool proposed the article with the highest probability of being relevant. The reviewer then decided on relevancy of each article proposed. This process was continued until the stopping criterion was reached. All articles labelled relevant by the reviewer were screened on full text.

RESULTS

Considerations to ensure methodological quality when using AI in systematic reviews included: the choice of whether to use AI, the need of both deduplication and checking for inter-reviewer agreement, how to choose a stopping criterion and the quality of reporting. Using the tool in our review resulted in much time saved: only 23% of the articles were assessed by the reviewer.

CONCLUSION

The AI tool is a promising innovation for the current systematic reviewing practice, as long as it is appropriately used and methodological quality can be assured.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER

CRD42022283952.

Family factors to predict adolescents’ emotional health by decision tree model: A comparison between normally developed group and chronic-condition group

The increasing trend of adolescents’ emotional symptoms has become a global public health problem. Especially, adolescents with chronic diseases or disabilities face more risks of emotional problems. Ample evidence showed family environment associates with adolescents’ emotional health. However, the categories of family-related factors that most strongly influence adolescents’ emotional health remained unclear. Additionally, it was not known that whether family environment influences emotional health differently between normally developed adolescents and those with chronic condition(s). Health Behaviours in School-aged Children (HBSC) database provides mass data about adolescents’ self-reported health and social environmental backgrounds, which offers opportunities to apply data-driven approaches to determine critical family environmental factors that influence adolescents’ health. Thus, based on the national HBSC data in the Czech Republic collected from 2017 to 2018, the current study adopted a data-driven method, classification-regression-decision-tree analysis, to investigate the impacts of family environmental factors, including demographic factors and psycho-social factors on adolescents’ emotional health. The results suggested that family psycho-social functions played a significant role in maintaining adolescents’ emotional health. Both normally developed adolescents and chronic-condition(s) adolescents benefited from communication with parents, family support, and parental monitoring. Besides, for adolescents with chronic condition(s), school-related parental support was also meaningful for decreasing emotional problems. In conclusion, the findings suggest the necessity of interventions to strengthen family-school communication and cooperation to improve chronic-disease adolescents’ mental health. The interventions aiming to improve parent-adolescent communication, parental monitoring, and family support are essential for all adolescents.

The associations between social environment and adolescents’ psychosomatic health: An ecological perspective

Objectives

It has been known that social environments are associated with adolescents’ health. However, the complex relationship between diverse types of social environments and adolescents’ psychosomatic heath remained unclear. Thus, using an ecological perspective, the current study aimed to examine the associations between social environment and adolescents’ psychosomatic health.

Methods

We used the data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) project conducted in the Czech Republic in 2018. A total of 13377 observations were included.

Results

The region, as a macrosystem, could not explain the variance in adolescents’ psychological and somatic health. The quality of neighborhood environment (exosystem) was significantly related to adolescents’ psychological and somatic health. At the microsystem level, teacher support had stronger, family support had weaker, and peer support had no association with psychological and somatic health. At the mesosystem level, the interactions between family, teacher, and friend support were negligible for adolescents’ psychological and somatic health.

Conclusions

The results underscore the importance of teachers’ support and neighborhood environment for adolescents’ psychosomatic health. Therefore, the findings suggest the need to improve teacher-adolescent relationships and the neighborhood community quality.