Late bedtime reflects QTA30 anxiety symptoms in adolescents in a school checkup.

BACKGROUND In adolescence, physical symptoms may develop due to psychosocial problems, but such problems are not fully evaluated in school medical checkups. The aim of the study was to compare lifestyle factors with psychosomatic symptoms for adolescent using the subscales of Questionnaire for Triage and Assessment with 30 items (QTA30) in a school health checkup. METHODS The QTA30 was used in checkups for 3,414 students from 5th grade of primary school to 3rd grade of junior high school in south Wakayama prefecture. The QTA is a self-completed questionnaire with 5 subscales of physical symptoms, depression symptoms, self-efficacy, anxiety symptoms, and family function. Each subscale is divided into three groups of clinical, borderline and healthy, based on the subscale score. Subscale scores were compared with lifestyle items of gender, grade, habits, life events, and school attendance. RESULTS The clinical rate for all subscales was significantly higher for a higher grade (p <0.001). Anxiety symptoms was correlated with physical symptoms (r=0.560). Anxiety and physical symptoms were significantly higher for students who went to bed at a later time with no absences in the last month and who had problems with friends and teachers (both p<0.001). Family function correlated with self-efficacy (r=0.418), but not with other subscales. Study time was most related with self-efficacy (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS QTA30 subscale scores facilitated detection of psychosomatic stress and latent risks of psychosomatic disease at an early stage. Thus, use of the QTA30 in a school medical checkup may permit early intervention for psychosomatic stress in adolescents.