Relationship Between Subjective Fatigue Symptoms, Body Type and Health Awareness in Middle School Students

중학생의 피로자각증상과 체형 및 건강의식과의 관련성에 관한 연구

In order to investigate the complaint rates of subjective fatigue symptoms and study the relationship between them and body type, health awareness in middle school students, we carried out a survey of 1,209 students (654 boy students and 555 girl students) at a middle school in Taejon City by a self-recorded questionnaire. The survey was conducted in June, 1997. The results obtained were as follows: 1. Among complaints of fatigue, "feel like lying down" was the highest, followed by "feel anxious about things", "feel drowsy", "yawning a lot", "eye strain" and "whole body feels tired" in descending order. 2. In the average weighted score of fatigue complaint, dullness and sleepiness (I) was the highest, followed by a difficulty in concentration (II) and bodily projection of fatigue (III) in descending order. Fatigue seems to create mental stress rather than physical burdens. 3. In the classification of body type based on the $R\ddot{o}hrer$ index, the obesity type (145 and above) was 11.0%, standard type (110~144) was 64.7% and leptosomic type (l09 and below) was 24.3%. Comparison between both sexes revealed that the rate of obesity and leptosomic types were significantly higher in boy students than in girl students. 4. In terms body type awareness, the statistics are the following: those who consider themselves to be standard type, 44.3%, slightly obese 24.5%, leptosomic, 23.5% and obese 7.8%. However, the level of obesity awareness was significantly higher in girl students than in boy students. 5. As for health awareness, 36.5% considered themselves healthy, 5.4% generally healthy and 10.1% a little unhealthy, but the level of unhealthy awareness was higher in girl students than in boy students. 6. In the relationship between body type and health awareness, most students thought that they were obese in spite of their standard body type. Also, many students who were obese and leptosomic tended to consider themselves to be a little unhealthy. 7. The more the students were obese or felt unhealthy, the more the average weighted score of fatigue complaints was high.