Risk behaviour in an urban and a rural male adolescent population

Background. There is an increasing trend of risk behaviour in adolescents w orldwide but very little literature is available in India on this important subject. We surveyed an urban male adolescent population and a comparable rural population to determine the difference in their risk behaviour. Methods. A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among 199 and 15 2 male adolescents from an urban village of south Delhi and a rural village in Uttar Pradesh, A pretested semi-structured interview schedule with 36 i tems was applied on all subjects by trained interviewers. Results. Consuming alcohol, smoking, pre-marital sexual intercourse and con suming bhang (cannabis) were present in 32.2%, 25.1%, 12.5% and 11.5% of th e urban village adolescents and in 1.3%, 48.7%, 11.2%, and 16.5% of those r esiding in the rural village, respectively. About 66.8% of urban and 51.3% of rural adolescents had indulged in physical fights and 12.5% of urban and 6.6%, of rural adolescents were in possession of assault weapons such as i ron rods, chains or knives sometime in the 30 days prior to the interview. Conclusion. The results of our study indicate that there is a high prevalen ce of risk behaviour in both urban and rural adolescents. However, except f or smoking which was more common amongst rural adolescents all the other ri sk behaviours were more in those residing in urban areas. The reasons for t his need to be ascertained, taking the geographical and socio-cultural fact ors into account, prior to considering the introduction of behaviour modifi cation programmes.