Perception of neighborhood environment and health risk behaviors in Prague's teenagers: A pilot study in a post-communist city
Abstract
A youths' neighborhood can play an important role in their physical, health, and emotional development. The prevalence of health risk behavior (HRB) in Czech youth such as smoking, drug and alcohol use is the highest in Europe.The data is based on the on-line survey among elementary school students aged between 14-15 years, which was administered in19 selected schools in Prague, during the months of October 2013 to March 2014.
Respondents were asked their opinions on various issues related to their HRB, about their indoor and outdoor housing and school environments. The questionnaire was completed by 407 students.
Factor analysis with a principal components extraction was applied to determine the underlying structure in the variables. A consequent field research was conducted to map the opportunity hot spots and critical places around the elementary schools.