Korean J Fam Pract 2019; 9(3): 315-318  https://doi.org/10.21215/kjfp.2019.9.3.315
The Association between Height and Mental Health in Korean Male Adolescents
Eun-Ju Lee, Jung-Im Gwak*, Kyung-Hwan Youn
Department of Family Medicine, Anyang SAM General Hospital, Anyang, Korea
Jung-Im Gwak
Tel: +82-31-467-9161, Fax: +82-31-449-0151
E-mail: euridiche@hanmail.net
Received: September 8, 2017; Revised: October 11, 2017; Accepted: October 19, 2017; Published online: June 20, 2019.
© The Korean Academy of Family Medicine. All rights reserved.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background: The growth of Korean adolescents’ average height has slowed over the past 10 years. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between height and mental health in Korean male adolescents.
Methods: This study used data from the 2015 Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (34,152 male school students). The male adolescents were divided into the below-average height and above-average height groups according to age. The association between height and mental health was analyzed by multivariate logistic regression.
Results: The above-average height group had significantly higher subjective health (P=0.003) and significantly lower depression than the below-average height group (P=0.031). In multivariate logistic regression, the odds ratio of subjective health wass 1.13 (P=0.043), but no significant difference in subjective happiness, depression, stress and suicidal ideation (P>0.05) at both group.
Conclusion: It was confirmed that height is associated with subjective health in Korean male adolescents.
Keywords: Adolescent; Mental Health
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