RESEARCH ARTICLE Self-Rated Health among Urban Adolescents: The Roles of Age, Gender, and Their Associated Factors

Health status is often analyzed in population surveys. Self-rated health (SRH) is a single-item summary measure of the perception of one’s health. In Brazil, studies on the SRH of adolescents remain scarce, especially those aiming to understand the domains that com-pose this construct. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of poor SRH and its associated factors among 11- to 13-year-olds and 14- to 17-year-olds living in a large urban center in Brazil. This cross-sectional study was conducted using a household survey across Belo Horizonte that included 1,042 adolescents. Stratified logistic regression models were used for each age group to assess the associations between worse SRH and the following variables: socio-demographic, social and family support, lifestyles, psychologi-cal health, and anthropometry. Approximately 11 % (95 % CIs = 8.7–13.6) of the studied ado-lescents rated their health as poor, and SHR decreased with age among males and females. This trend was more pronounced among girls (from 6.9 % among 11- to 13-year-old girls to 16.9 % among 14- to 17-year-old girls) than boys (from 8.3 % among 11- to 13-year-old boys to 11 % among 14- to 17-year-old boys). Worse SRH was associated wit