Journal of School of Public Health and

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Background and Aim: Adolescence is the transition period between childhood and adulthood, a period in life that begins at puberty. It is one of the fastest growth periods in a person's life. During this time, physical changes affect the body's nutritional needs, while changes in one's lifestyle may affect eating habits and food choices. Nutritional health during adolescence is important for supporting the growing body and for preventing future health problems. In Iran, the prevalence of anemia, obesity, and other chronic nutritional diseases has increased in recent years due to undesirable eating habits. This survey was conducted to determine consumption of the four major food groups (vegetables, fruits, milk products, and meat) among a group of high school students in Zanjan Province, Iran.

Methods and Materials: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out on 1500 students, selected by random cluster sampling, in Zanjan high schools, Iran in 2005. The daily intakes of the 4 food groups during the previous week were determined using a food frequency questionnaire. The potential determinants of the pattern of food consumption were also determined.

Results: The proportions of the students not having consumed fruits, vegetables, and meat during the weak were 16%, 6.8%, and 10%, respectively. More than 95% of the students said that they had consumed milk/milk products at least once a day. Only 8.7% consumed fruits and 27% consumed vegetables 3 times or more daily.

Conclusion: The consumption of the 4 food groups of large proportions of Zanjan Province adolescents is below the current recommendations. Health and nutrition educational programs would be a valuable tool to correct erroneous food habits of the adolescents leading to improvements in their nutritional status.

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Background and Aim: Considering the lack of attention to the health promotion of adolescents due to their perception of being healthy in most countries of the world, we aimed to evaluate the predictors of adolescent health promoting lifestyle through path analysis based on IMB model.

Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive-analytic study on 400 high school students in Andimeshk city in two urban and rural areas. The sample size was obtained using the Cochran formula.They were selected by classified random sampling. In this study, demographic data, information about IMB model structures and student adherence to healthy lifestyle were collected in four areas nutrition, physical activity, stress control and responsibility. Correlation between total structures was analyzed using SPSS-23 software. Lisrel 8.5 software. Meanwhile, the relationships between variables were analyzed using Path analysis to fit and approve model fit model using LISREL8.8 software.

Results: All structures of IMB model had a Significant relationship with adolescent healthy lifestyle. Self-efficacy structure had the most predictive power. In general, self-efficacy variables, 75%, motivation 66%, and 50% knowledge had a positive and significant effect on behavior. This model was able to explain 71% of the variance in adolescent lifestyle behavior. Also, in this model, the level of self-efficacy variance (behavioral skills), 52%,, And motivation variance was explained 57%. Motivation and knowledge indirectly influenced the lifestyle behavior (behavior) by 55% and 50%, respectively.

Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that the IMB model has a good application for explaining and predicting the healthy lifestyle of adolescents. Accordingly, it is recommended that health planners apply the IMB model in order to promote adolescent lifestyle in this population.

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Background and Aim: Considering that a person’s identity in formed during adolescence and that such identity formation is of particular importance in this period and the many factors that play important roles in it, the present study was conducted to determine the factors related with identity formation among high school students in Mazandaran Province, Iran.
Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study. The participants were 394 high school students in Mazandaran Province, Iran selected by random cluster sampling. Data were collected using 3 questionnaires, namely, the Benion and Adams Identity Scale Questionnaire (EOM-EIS-2), the Identification Factors Questionnaire and a Demographic Questionnaire. For data analysis, Wilcoxon, Spearman correlation and linear regression tests were used.
Results: Over half (51.8%) of the participants were girls and 48.2% boys. The results of regression analysis showed that the factors studied (family, personality, school, community and culture and media) could explain 22.7%, 11.2%, 10.5% and 21.2% of the variance in turbulent, early, delayed and advanced self-identification in adolescents, respectively.
Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, it is recommended to organize parenting and student training courses and make the school environment more favorable for the students, as well as include extracurricular activities in the school to help students identify themselves more easily.

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Background and aim: Health literacy can be one of the most important effective factors in the adoption of preventive behaviors of osteoporosis by raising awareness and understanding the benefits of diagnostic and preventive behaviors. The objective of this study was to determine the health literacy skills effective in predicting adoption of osteoporosis preventive behaviors in high school female students.
Materials and methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study including 375 high school girls in Qazvin, Iran, selected by multi-stage sampling. Data were collected using the standard Health Literacy Measure for Adolescents (HELMA) and the Preventive Behavior of Osteoporosis Measurement questionnaires. The data were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS-23, the tests being descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis.
Results: Two of the eight components of health literacy, namely, understanding and communication, and two, namely usage of health information and calculation, were found to receive the highest and the lowest mean scores, respectively. The total scores of health literacy and the adoption of preventive behaviors of osteoporosis were 70.84±12.58 (out 100) and 22.43±5.60 (out of 36), respectively. Multiple regression analysis showed that the components of health literacy could predict 38.4% of the changes in the adoption of preventive behaviors of osteoporosis (R² = 0.384). The only other predictor of adoption of behavior was the usage of health information (P=0.001، β=0.044). 
Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended to pay special attention, when developing educational programs for the prevention of osteoporosis in adolescents, to health literacy as a whole, especially the usage of health information component.