Initial engagement and persistence of health risk behaviors through adolescence: longitudinal findings from urban South Africa.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Little is known about longitudinal patterns of adolescent health risk behavior initial engagement and persistence in low- and middle-income countries.

Methods

Birth to Twenty Plus is a longitudinal birth cohort in Soweto-Johannesburg, South Africa. We used reports from Black African participants on cigarette smoking, alcohol, cannabis, illicit drug, and sexual activity initial engagement and adolescent pregnancy collected over 7 study visits between ages 11 and 18 y. We fit Kaplan-Meier curves to estimate behavior engagement or adolescent pregnancy, examined current behavior at age 18 y by age of first engagement, and performed a clustering analysis to identify patterns of initial engagement and their sociodemographic predictors.

Results

By age 13 y, cumula

SUBMITTER: Kowalski AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7798218 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature