Determinants of Self-Perceived Health in Iranian Children and Adolescents: the CASPIAN IV Study

  Background: Health status is an individual’s relative level of wellness and illness. Self-Perceived Health (SPH) is a single item considered as a health indicator for national and international survey. The aim of this study was to evaluate the SPH measure and its determinants in a National sample of Iranian children and adolescents.   Materials and Methods:  This National study was performed as the fourth National survey of a school‑based surveillance program entitled the Childhood and Adolescence Surveillance and Prevention of Adult Non-communicable Disease (CASPIAN‑IV) study. 14,880 students aged 6-18 years old selected from 30 provinces of Iran by a multistage Cluster and stratified sampling method. Two sets of valid and reliable questionnaires were completed for students and their parents.   Results : Overall 13,846 participated in the present studywith 90.6 % participation. In this study, 80.5 % of boys and 79.4% of girls reported good SPH (95% confidence interval (CI), 79.3-81.6 versus 78.1-80.6, respectively). According to the living area, 79.5% from urban and 81.1% from rural area declared good SPH (95% CI, 78.6-80.5 versus 79.2-82.8, respectively). In the multivariate model, the subjects who had healthy weight compared with excess weight had significantly higher SPH (OR: 1.36; 95% CI, 1.17-1.59). Also, the subjects with high Socio-economic status (SES) had higher odds of SPH (odds ratio [OR], 1.23; 95% CI, 1.06-1.41).   Conclusion: Our results showed that SPH can be influenced by both demographic and life style related characteristics among study population. This association was stronger for SPH and academic success, talking with both parents and having normal body image respectively.