Late bedtime reflects QTA30 anxiety symptoms in adolescents in a school checkup

In adolescence, physical symptoms may develop due to psychosocial problems but such problems are not fully evaluated in school medical checkups. The aim of this study was to compare lifestyle factors with psychosomatic symptoms in adolescents using the subscales of the Questionnaire for Triage and Assessment with 30 items (QTA30) in school health checkups.

The QTA30 was used in checkups for 3,414 students from the fifth grade of primary school to the third grade of junior high school in south Wakayama prefecture. The QTA is a self-completed questionnaire with five subscales of physical symptoms, depression symptoms, self-efficacy, anxiety symptoms, and family function. Each subscale is divided into three groups of clinical, borderline, and healthy, based on the subscale score. Subscale scores were compared with lifestyle items of gender, grade, habits, life events, and school attendance.

The clinical rate for all subscales was significantly higher for a higher grade (P < 0.001). Anxiety symptoms were correlated with physical symptoms (r = 0.560). Anxiety and physical symptoms were significantly higher for students who went to bed at a later time with no absences in the last month and who had problems with friends and teachers (both P < 0.001). Family function correlated with self-efficacy (r = 0.418) but not with other subscales. Study time was most related to self-efficacy (P < 0.001).

The QTA30 subscale scores facilitated detection of psychosomatic stress and latent risks of psychosomatic disease at an early stage. Thus, the use of the QTA30 in a school medical checkup may permit early intervention for psychosomatic stress in adolescents.