Health is unlike anything else significantly important in the life of humankind (Kurt 2015, Birol 2004). Decent health is treasured asset for everyone at every step of the way in all areas of life during the lifespan including to learn, work, establish & maintain social and personal
relationships and physical, social and economic growth (Seedhouse 1986).
In other words, good health is strictly associated with academic triumph, strength, creativity, diligence, brilliance, and superior quality of life (Ratnaprabha et al. 2018, WHO 1997). This suggests that health is a precious resource (Dutta-Bergman 2004) that is certainly helpful and health plays a purposeful and significant role to live an active, a productive, an independent life and enjoy successful aging. And health maintenance, promotion, and preventing diseases are essential and fundamental
preconditions (Musavian et al. 2014, Raiyat et al. 2012) to achieve optimum health; that is to say state of reaching exhaustive physical, social,
emotional, intellectual, ecological, spiritual and economical intact (WHO 1986) and then to promote and strengthen the development and growth of individuals, families, communities, and nations (Musavian et al. 2014, Raiyat et al. 2012). An appropriate time for starting healthy and ingenious lifestyles is early years of developmental period (Musavian et al. 2014).
Prudence in resource mobilization to improve adolescent health by society is very crucial (Lee & Loke 2005) because a brighter future of the world (Haj-Ahmad & Sarah Karmin 2019) hinges on the adolescent population (Currie et al. 2004) and the health of the future generation (Haj-Ahmad &
Sarah Karmin 2019, Lee & Loke 2005). Adolescents are a major force in shaping a brighter future through making positive and maximum
contribution to social, economic, and political change. Thus, adolescents can contribute to a vigorous workforce, everlasting economic expansion, better governance, and dynamic societies (Haj-Ahmad & Sarah Karmin 2019). The future of the next generation and society can be endangered when the nation is incapable to invest in the health of adolescents. Poor health during adolescence will dangerously influence the human reservoir
development and the future economy of the future generations through increasing the size of reliant adolescents and adults on healthcare and social services.Thus, investing in adolescent health promotion in order to ensure a brighter future for successive generations is imperative and unavoidable (Salam et al. 2016). Thus, health promotion will always remain the cornerstone of public health (Madi & Hussain 2007). The best
developmental period for initiating beneficial behavior for health is the early years of life (Musavian et al. 2014, Raiyat et al. 2012). And health habits that are adapted and established in the early years of life, are very unlikely and not easy to change in adulthood since they are not transient and passing phase behaviors (Jackson et al. 2012, Lee & Loke 2005, Lee et al. 1997). Therefore, adolescent health promotion is one of the key
strategies to improve global health, since health risk behaviors in adolescents will contribute to adverse health conditions sooner or later (Lee et al. 2019, WHO 2014).
Health destructive behaviors that comprise smoking, alcohol, drug abuse, unsafe sexual practice, unhealthy eating habits, and sedentary behavior are usually started during adolescence and are maintained throughout the lifespan and are factors of risk for chronic health
conditions in the near and distant future (Azeredo et al. 2016). Moreover, several adolescents are seriously at risk because of insufficient nutritional intake, physical inactivity, smoking, drug abuse and excessive alcohol drinking that can contribute to poor health outcomes (Derlippe et al. 2013, Lee & Loke 2005, Walker & Townsend 1999) all around the lifespan such as injuries, accidents, violence, suicide, unsafe abortion and infection with HIV, cognitive impairment, homicides, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory infections and some cancers (Lee & Loke 2005). The estimates show about 70% of premature deaths in adulthood are attached to health destructive behaviors that are adopted in the early years of life worldwide (Qidwai et al. 2010).
The adolescent period is most of the time considered a healthy period of life because mortality and physical illness is low during adolescence compared with other developmental phases, however, this is misleading (Currie et al 2012, Plianbangchang 2011), because 1.2 million adolescents
die of curable causes of diseases worldwide each year. The onus of death and disease is whetted by mental health problem, self-inflicted injuries, and self-annihilation, not so much by physical illness during the adolescent period (Mewton et al. 2019). About 67% of deaths happened in lower middle-economies of the world. Growing evidence indicated that traffic accidents, hostile behavior or foul play, underwater suffocation, lower respiratory tracks illnesses, and self-inflicted injuries were the leading causes of mortalities among male adolescents. Equally, the main reasons of mortality among female teenagers were respiratory infections, self-inflicted harm, dysenteric illness, maternal reproductive syndrome such as hemorrhage- bleeding from the genital tract, and sepsis-infection of the genital tract, hypertensive (raised blood pressure with proteinuria), disorders of pregnancy (unsafe abortion and complication of labor) and road traffic injury in 2015 (WHO 2018).
The health of the environment and human health and well-being are inseparable (Marlow et al. 2009, Fowler & Hobbs 2003). Around the world, 23% of all deaths are prompted by environmental risk factors including unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation, and high indoor and outdoor air pollution, climate change, rapid urbanization, poor infrastructures for active travel, lead crystals in soil, pesticide remnants in food (WHO 2019, WHO 2006). Also, environmental pollutants can affect teenagers
excessively because their immunities are not entirely matured and their growing bodies are more easily hurt. And persistent exposure to
contaminated air is the real culprit of respiratory infections among teens (WHO 2010). Thus, environmental management and policy intervention is required for healthy, green, and quality physical environments that supply basic human needs in respect of clean air to breathe and safe water for drinking and sanitation, fertile land for food production, stabilizing climate change and prevent flooding, and providing opportunities for recreation and to have a greater influence on health behavior development and then to improve health (Kuntsche et al. 2017, EEA 2008).
Heath risk behaviors contribute significantly to chronic diseases (Alzahrani et al. 2014, Patton et al. 2009). Also, the initiation of multiple unhealthy behaviors usually occurs simultaneously during the adolescent
period (Kipping et al. 2012, Connell et al. 2009, van Nieuwenhuijzen 2009) and heightened risk of low academic success, premature disabilities, and deaths (Kipping et al. 2012, Biglan et al. 2004). Destructive behaviors of adolescents are predictive of high social and economic costs now and in the future through injuries, violence, suicide, chronic health conditions, shortened academic accomplishment, and diminished opportunity to access the labor market which can cause direct economic problems to social welfare systems (Health Canada 2001, Benda & Corwin 1998). In other words, health risk behaviors can place adolescents at risk for weak physical, mental, social, and economic outcomes (Behanova et al. 2014, Bambara 1999, McCauley & Salter 1995).
Affectionate support from parents is critical for the development of self-image and mental self-image the individuals can have for themselves regarding strength, weakness, and status (Mann et al. 2004). The previous study showed that feeling of stable attachment to parents among adolescents was associated with fast adaptation, ability to think and understand quickly, self-respect or self-assurance, and negatively associated with feelings of school disentanglement (Kocayörük & Şimşek 2016). High levels of self-esteem and self-confidence are strongly related to mental well-being, adjustment, happiness, subjective well-well-being, success, satisfaction, and quick recovery after severe sicknesses (Mann et al. 2004). Among others, trust and good communication between adolescents and parents are essential to building excellent parental-child attachment. And trust is felt security that is perceived by adolescents (Ishaka et al. 2010, Armsden &
Greenberg 1987), and is displayed when parents understand and respect adolescents and respond to the adolescents’ questions, needs, desires, and wishes accurately (Ishaka et al. 2010, Erikson 1950). Apparently, when adolescents do trust their parents, they are more willing to share their feelings and ambitions with their parents. Furthermore, trust and confidence between adolescents and parents can be established in part when adolescents can contact their parents and feel that support is at their disposal when it is required (Ishaka et al. 2010). Thus, trust promotes self-disclosure between adolescents and parents and it is a vital component of attachment building (Ishaka et al. 2010, Erikson 1950). Thus, parents are
immensely important to build up the keystone for their teenagers to stand on and keep on making their own building block to succeed and prevail now and in the future.
Destructive behaviors are exceedingly harmful to individuals’ health and often happen simultaneously (Prochaska et al. 2010, Fine et al. 2004). The existence of multiple health-threatening behaviors either in sequence or simultaneously could heighten the chance of developing chronic ill health, specifically certain cancers, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases
(Alzahrani et al. 2014).Multiple health risk behaviors multiply the
healthcare burden in connection with health outcomes and costs including, the risk of death, physical, social and cognitive infirmities, jacking up
healthcare cost and hospitalization demands and drug-connected ill effects (Prochaska et al. 2010, Shinton 1997). Also, a study done on Australian adolescents revealed that engaging in road accidents was strongly linked to other health-risk behaviors including tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use, and unprotected sex (Sanci etal.2018 & Martin et al. 2016). In other words, initiation of one unhealthy behavior would create a favorable condition to engage in other several unhealthy behaviors because of its domino effects.
The world could have saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars had adolescents around the globe made successful transitions to adulthood with positive health behaviors which include health-promoting and risk avoidance behaviors (Boyce et al. 2006, US Department of Health and Human Services 1991) into adulthood. Regrettably millions of adolescents adopt health risk behaviors that are likely to raise the risk of premature morbidity and mortality both today and in the future every year.
Ethiopia has done well in scaling down mortalities associated with lack of nutritional awareness, neonatal & other maternal conditions,
communicable diseases, and injuries by 65%. However, premature death rates due to non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory disease have multiplied and making non-communicable diseases among the top killer diseases in Ethiopia in 2015 (Misganaw et al. 2017). Another study done in Ethiopia revealed that 42% of death caused by non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and among these 27% of death were untimely which is prior to 70 years of
age. Furthermore, the number of individuals living with Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) has rapidly risen from less than 20% in 1990 to 69% in 2015. This suggests that Ethiopia will suffer from the whopping of before-time deaths and disabilities from NCDs by 2040 if the current development persists unaddressed (Shiferaw et al. 2018). A few studies were conducted on adolescent health behaviors in Ethiopia. Thus, there is an obvious scarcity of information about adolescent health behaviors in Ethiopia.
However, up-to-date research findings around health-related behaviors of adolescents are required to design and deliver the efficient and apposite public health-promoting intervention in Ethiopia. Also, the capacity to accurately delineate, explain and prescient health-related behaviors is vital to varieties of researchers and professionals engaged in developing and pinpointing appropriate interventions to adopt positive health behaviors and to nip the progress of risky health behaviors in the bud (Conner &
Norman 2005). Thus, the overall purpose of this study is to describe, explain, examine and establish the relationships of health-related behaviors to sociodemographic characteristics and then to add and develop knowledge of health-related behaviors among adolescents in Ethiopia and in due course advance preventive healthcare knowledge worldwide.