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Updated: Apr 18, 2026

Determining Soil-transmitted Helminth Infection Status and Physical Fitness of School-aged Children
Published on: August 22, 2012
[Health status of young-adolescents in Italy]
Massimo Santinello1, Alessio Vieno, Franco Cavallo
1Dipartimento di psicologia dello sviluppo e della socializzazione, Università di Padova, LIRIPAC Laboratori interdipartimentali per la ricerca psicologica applicata e clinica. massimo.santinello@unipd.it
Objective:
This study presents the prevalence of different somatic and psychological complains in a sample of Italians early-adolescents and adolescents. Aim of the study is to verify sex and age (11, 13 and 15) differences in a variety of symptoms.
Design:
The survey is part of the larger Health Behaviour in School Aged Children (HBSC) trans-national study co-ordinated by the European Office of the World Health Organization. The data were gathered through self-completion questionnaire. The main areas covered in the questionnaire were health and health behaviour.
Setting:
151 middle school and 92 high school randomly retrieved from the list of the Italian public and private school.
Participants:
The questionnaire was filled out by a representative sample of 4,386 (48.4% males) Italian early adolescents.
Main Outcome Measures:
Psychological and somatic complains.
Results:
Results revealed an increase of health problem with age, and these increases being greater for females than males.
Conclusion:
Increasing morbidity for female occurs during transitions phase of early-adolescence.
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