Covid-19 and Adolescents’ Health Self-Assessment

Significance. The study of the impact of COVID-19 on the self-assessment of adolescent health is relevant and in demand, since it will allow scientifically substantiating the impact of COVID-19 on the self-assessment of health of this contingent. Purpose: the relationship between the level of self-assessment of adolescent health and coronavirus infection: incidence rate, severity of COVID-19 diseases, well-being after infection. Materials and methods. The study of self-assessment of the health of adolescents aged 15-17 years depending on coronavirus infection was conducted among first-year students of colleges and technical schools using an anonymous questionnaire. A total of 13,561 teenagers were surveyed, including: 7,580 (55.9%) boys and 5,987 (44.1%) girls from four federal districts of Russia: Northwestern Federal District (Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Kaliningrad), Central Federal District (Voronezh, Kaluga), Volga Federal District (Izhevsk, Cheboksary, Samara), Siberian Federal District (Kemerovo, Novokuznetsk). Statistical development of the survey materials was carried out using the Risk Factors computer program (AnkProc). Results. The study showed that among teenagers who rated their health as "excellent" and "good", coronavirus infections were statistically significantly less common than among both boys and girls with "satisfactory self-assessment of health" (p<0.001). Adolescents with "excellent" and "satisfactory" self-assessment of health had a relatively mild form of coronavirus infection. Over 90% of adolescents in both groups, both boys and girls, were treated on an outpatient basis. Only 4 to 6% of adolescents in both groups were treated for coronavirus infection in hospital in regular departments. None of the adolescents in either group were treated in intensive care or resuscitation departments. Despite the fact that adolescents with "satisfactory" self-assessment of health also easily suffered from coronavirus infection, they were more likely (almost 2 times) to experience negative health consequences, namely: in boys, health deterioration was in 35.3% of cases, in girls - in 56.1% of cases. Conclusion. With a decrease in the level of self-assessment of health in adolescents, the frequency of coronavirus infection increases, the frequency of negative consequences increases. Keywords: adolescents; health self-assessment; COVID-19, negative health consequences.