A study of reproductive health, mental health & addictions among adolescents in Margao City of Goa

Reproductive health development depends on the menstrual hygiene in adolescence. Half of all mental health disorders in adulthood start during adolescence. Drug, alcohol and tabacco use is major concern in this group. This study was conducted to study the reproductive health, mental health and various addictions in urban adolescent. This cross sectional study was conducted among 506 adolescents from standard 9th and 10th in a high school in Margao city of South Goa district in year 2015. For this study, 506 participants sampled by census method were interviewed by using a pretested, structured questionnaire. The mean age of study participants i.e. in girls it was 16.30 years & in boys it was observed 16.43 years. 85.4% of the study participants experienced one of the feelings of being anxious, sad, irritable or stressed, 74.4% of the study participants experienced feelings suggestive of psychosomatic disorder and 48.4% participants felt they were good for nothing. 58.1% had normal cycles of 21-35 days while 30.7% and 11.2% of the girls had cycles of < 21 days & 36-60 days respectively. 49.2% experienced mild symptoms of dysmenorrhoea, equal percentage experienced moderate symptoms and 1.6% experienced severe dysmenorrhoea. 40.4% had curdy white vaginal discharge, 5.5% had greenish yellow discharge and 19.8% had blood stained vaginal discharge. 5.5% of the adolescents smoked.1.2% of the participants chewed Gutkha. 26.5% had consumed alcohol & 3.8% had tried drugs. The study shows that adolescents faces various problems for which they need to be addressed