ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Minerva Psychiatry 2021 June;62(2):86-93

DOI: 10.23736/S2724-6612.21.02148-8

Copyright © 2021 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Relationship between high-risk behavior and mental health problems using latent factor regression for grouped outcomes model

Afshin ALMASI ¹, Youkhabeh MOHAMMADIAN ², Behzad MAHAKI ¹, Parisa POURNAZARI ¹ ✉

¹ Department of Biostatistics and School of Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (KUMS), Kermanshah, Iran; ² Department of Clinical Psychology, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

BACKGROUND: Most studies have considered one of the high-risk behaviors and one of the psychological problems, regardless of the correlation between them, using a univariate approach to analysis. The present study investigates the relationship between multiple risk behaviors and multiple psychological problems simultaneously in a multivariate approach.
METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted between 2019-2020 among the students of the Medical University of Kermanshah, in Iran. The Convenience Sampling method was used to collect the data, and 750 was considered the sample size. Three questionnaires of GHQ-12, HADS, and IARS were used.
RESULTS: The mean age of the study participants was 23.25±3.33 years, and 68.5% (513 participants) of participants were female. The relationship between dangerous driving with the profile of mental health, depression, anxiety, and psychological distress was negative and significant. The relationship between smoking and anxiety, the profile of mental health, depression, and psychological distress was positive and significant. The relationship between alcohol consumption with anxiety, depression, and psychological distress was positive and nonsignificant, while the profile of mental health was positive and significant.
CONCLUSIONS: Due to the adverse effect of high-risk behaviors on the mental health of people, especially students, measures should be taken to inform people about such behaviors. In this regard, university officials can reduce such behaviors by providing the necessary training on these behaviors and informing students about their side effects.

KEY WORDS: Anxiety; Depression; Psychological distress