Background We recently showed headache to be common in children (aged 7–11 years) and adolescents... more Background We recently showed headache to be common in children (aged 7–11 years) and adolescents (aged 12–17) in Lithuania. Here we provide evidence from the same study of the headache-attributable burden. Methods Following the generic protocol for Lifting The Burden’s global schools-based study, this cross-sectional survey administered self-completed structured questionnaires to pupils within classes in 24 nationally representative schools selected from seven regions of the country. Headache diagnostic questions were based on ICHD-3 beta criteria but for the inclusion of undifferentiated headache (UdH; defined as mild headache with usual duration
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020
There is a lack of evidence of the moderating effects of caries lesions and malocclusions on oral... more There is a lack of evidence of the moderating effects of caries lesions and malocclusions on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among older adolescents. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship of dental caries and malocclusion with OHRQoL among Lithuanian adolescents aged 15 to 18 years. A survey in a representative sample of adolescents included a clinical examination to assess dental health status using the DMFT (Decayed, Missing, and Filled Permanent Teeth) index, and malocclusion using the Index of Complexity, Outcome, and Need (ICON). The Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ) was used to evaluate respondents’ OHRQoL. Negative binomial regression was fitted to associate the clinical variables with the CPQ scores. A total of 600 adolescents were examined. The overall mean DMFT score was 2.7. A need for orthodontic treatment was detected among 27.7% of adolescents. Subjects with caries lesions (DMFT > 3) had higher CPQ scores in the domains of functional limitat...
Straipsnyje pristatomo tyrimo tikslas buvo avertinti Lietuvos moksleivio saviþudiðko polinkio pap... more Straipsnyje pristatomo tyrimo tikslas buvo avertinti Lietuvos moksleivio saviþudiðko polinkio paplitima ir iðanalizuoti, kokius saviþudiðko mineio bei elgesio paaiðkinimus pateikia vienuolikos, trylikos ir penkiolikos meto berniukai ir mergaites. Atliktas darbas pagrastas 2002 meto PSO koordinuojamos moksleivio sveikatos ir gyvensenos studijos (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children – HBSC) duomenimis. Tirta kontingenta sudare 5645 moksleiviai: 2887 (51,1 proc.) berniukai ir 2758 (48,9 proc.) mergaites. Tyrimo duomenimis, saviþudiðki polinkiai budingi treedaliui (32,5 proc.) apklausoje dalyvavusio moksleivio. Saviþudiðko polinkio turintys moksleiviai linkae atskleisti jo prieþastis: jas nurode 42,7 proc. tiriamojo. Aptardami saviþudiðkas paskatas moksleiviai daþniausiai minejo slegianeius jausmus ir iðgyvenimus. Jaunesnieji moksleiviai mintis ir bandymus save þaloti itin daþnai aiðkino smalsumu ir noru iðbandyti avairius saviþudybes budus.
Comment 1 Regarding Comment # 1 in my previous report, please add the text in strengths and limit... more Comment 1 Regarding Comment # 1 in my previous report, please add the text in strengths and limitations section of the paper as follows: The study did not include information related to parents' and peers' cigarette smoking, or second hand smoke exposure at home or other places; which may play an important role in determining current smoking of young people, as the survey did not include related information. Nevertheless, our study focussed on the specific psychosocial familial determinants and their impact on young people smoking risk, and results provide baseline information in given context, which provide directions for improved tobacco control efforts intervening at family level. Answer: The comment was taken into consideration. The proposed text was added in lines 425-430.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2018
Recently developed and originally published in English, the Child and Adolescent HARDSHIP (headac... more Recently developed and originally published in English, the Child and Adolescent HARDSHIP (headache-attributed restriction, disability, social handicap and impaired participation) questionnaire is valid and acceptable for the global assessment of the burden of headache in children and adolescents. The present study aimed to translate, adapt and validate a Lithuanian version of this questionnaire. A total of 22 volunteers from 7 to 17 years of age completed the questionnaire with 24 h test-retest and a representative sample of 2505 schoolchildren of the same age participated in the main study. Test-retest reliability of the HRQoL (Headache Related Quality of Life) scale in the translated questionnaire showed substantial agreement (kappa: 0.604). Reliability and validity of the translated HRQoL scale were acceptable (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.749; test-retest kappa: 0.604, test for discriminant validity demonstrated that quality of life decreased by severity of headache). Factorial analysis...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019
Background: The social inequalities in oral health have had increasing attention in recent years.... more Background: The social inequalities in oral health have had increasing attention in recent years. The present study aimed to explore the impact of family affluence on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) among Lithuanian adolescents aged 11–18 years. Methods: The cross-sectional, population-based study included a representative sample of 881 adolescents aged 11–18 years (mean = 15.55; SD = 1.51) randomly selected from 20 schools in Lithuania. The schoolchildren completed questionnaires to evaluate their OHRQoL using a Lithuanian version of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ). The adolescents’ family affluence was indirectly assessed by inquiring whether they possessed various modern life items. In dental examination, the severity of malocclusion was predetermined by the Index of Complexity, Outcome, and Need (ICON). The relationship among variables was examined employing the negative binomial regression and the path analysis. Results: The sum score of CPQ as a whole an...
Straipsnyje pristatomo tyrimo tikslas buvo įvertinti Lietuvos moksleivių savižudiškų polinkių pap... more Straipsnyje pristatomo tyrimo tikslas buvo įvertinti Lietuvos moksleivių savižudiškų polinkių paplitimą ir išanalizuoti, kokius savižudiškų minčių bei elgesio paaiškinimus pateikia vienuolikos, trylikos ir penkiolikos metų berniukai ir mergaitės. Atliktas darbas pagrįstas 2002 metų PSO koordinuojamos moksleivių sveikatos ir gyvensenos studijos (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children – HBSC) duomenimis. Tirtą kontingentą sudarė 5645 moksleiviai: 2887 (51,1 proc.) berniukai ir 2758 (48,9 proc.) mergaitės. Tyrimo duomenimis, savižudiški polinkiai būdingi trečdaliui (32,5 proc.) apklausoje dalyvavusių moksleivių. Savižudiškų polinkių turintys moksleiviai linkę atskleisti jų priežastis: jas nurodė 42,7 proc. tiriamųjų. Aptardami savižudiškas paskatas moksleiviai dažniausiai minėjo slegiančius jausmus ir išgyvenimus. Jaunesnieji moksleiviai mintis ir bandymus save žaloti itin dažnai aiškino smalsumu ir noru išbandyti įvairius savižudybės būdus. SCHOOLCHILDREN’S SELF-REPORTED EXPLANATION...
Increasing alcohol consumption becomes more relevant social and health problem among youth. There... more Increasing alcohol consumption becomes more relevant social and health problem among youth. There is no reason to believe that this problem will decrease or be solved in the future. In such situation, it is necessary to build on the experience and conclusions of research performed by other countries. In this article, the risk factors for alcohol consumption among youth and preventive programs, in which family, school, and community play the main role, are analyzed. Such programs may attract the attention of public health specialists and public health politicians and can be not only declared, but also really implemented.
The aim was to evaluate the prevalence and trends of drug use among students of vocational school... more The aim was to evaluate the prevalence and trends of drug use among students of vocational schools in Klaipėda city and to establish the relationships between psychosocial factors and drug abuse. Participants and methods. Two cross-sectional questionnaire surveys were carried out among first-year students of vocational schools in Klaipėda. Random samples of 912 and 342 students aged 16–19 years (representatives of Western part of Lithuania) were questioned in 2004 and 2006, respectively. Questionnaires were filled out anonymously in the classroom. Questions have covered information on drugs such as marihuana, club drugs, injectable drugs, and other drugs. Logistic regression was used for evaluation of relationship between drug use and different psychosocial and behavioral determinants of drug use. Results. In 2004, 56.0% of male respondents and 42.0% of female respondents have reported any drug use during their life. The analysis of standardized data (by the place of residence) show...
The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in the prevalence of smoking, alcohol and drug u... more The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in the prevalence of smoking, alcohol and drug use among Lithuanian school-aged children in relation to the place of residence, family affluence, and family structure. Material and Methods. National surveys (26 556 anonymous questionnaires analyzed) of schoolchildren aged 11, 13, and 15 years were conducted in 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, and 2010 in the framework of the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Results. In 1994–2010, a significant increase in smoking prevalence was observed both among boys (11.3% to 21.5%, P<0.05) and girls (3.6% to 14.8%, P<0.05). Weekly alcohol consumption increased from 9.6% to 12.9% (P<0.05) among boys and from 4.3% to 7.9% (P<0.05) among girls. The prevalence of “ever use” of any psychoactive substance (data for 15-year-old group only) increased both in boys (14.6% to 33.5%) and girls (6.7% to 18.4%). Urban girls smoked more often than their rural peers. For bot...
International journal of environmental research and public health, Jan 26, 2018
This study aims to explore how sufficient social support can act as a possible preventive factor ... more This study aims to explore how sufficient social support can act as a possible preventive factor against fighting and bullying in school-aged children in 9 European countries. : Data for this study were collected during the 2013/2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. The sample consisted of 9 European countries, involving 43,667 school children in total, aged 11, 13 and 15 years. The analysed data focus on social context (relations with family, peers, and school) as well as risk behaviours such as smoking, drunkenness, fighting and bullying in adolescents. The relationships between social support and violent behaviour variables were estimated using multiple regression models and multivariate analyses. : Bullying, across 9 countries, was more prevalent than fighting, except for Armenia, Israel, and Poland. The prevalence among countries differed considerably, with fighting being most expressed in Armenia and bullying—in Latvia and Lithuania. The strongest ...
Dental professionals are uniquely positioned to discourage smoking among their patients. However,... more Dental professionals are uniquely positioned to discourage smoking among their patients. However, little is known about the role of cultural background and attitudes towards smoking in the education of these professionals. Our study aimed to compare native Lithuanian and international dental students' smoking habits, knowledge about the harmfulness of smoking and attitudes towards smoking cessation. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of smoking and its cessation among dental students at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (Kaunas, Lithuania) in 2012. All Lithuanian and international dental students in each year of dental school were invited to participate in the survey during a compulsory practical class or seminar. Altogether 606 students participated in the survey with a response rate of 84.2%. Explanatory factorial analysis (EFA), multivariate Discriminant Analysis (DA) and Binary Logistic Regression (BLR) served for the statistical analyses. The percentages of oc...
International journal of environmental research and public health, Jan 8, 2017
The role of the family as the social environment in shaping adolescent lifestyle has recently rec... more The role of the family as the social environment in shaping adolescent lifestyle has recently received substantial attention. This study was focused on investigating the association between familial and parenting predictors and alcohol use in school-aged children. Adolescents aged 13- and 15-year from a representative sample (N = 3715) of schools in Lithuania were surveyed during the spring of 2014. The methodology of the cross-national Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study was applied. HBSC international questionnaires were completed in the classroom anonymously for obtaining information about drinking of alcoholic beverages and family characteristics-family's affluence and structure, style of communication in the family, parenting style, parental monitoring, family time together, etc. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied for assessment of the association between familial variables and weekly alcohol use. Analysis has demonstrated...
Background We recently showed headache to be common in children (aged 7–11 years) and adolescents... more Background We recently showed headache to be common in children (aged 7–11 years) and adolescents (aged 12–17) in Lithuania. Here we provide evidence from the same study of the headache-attributable burden. Methods Following the generic protocol for Lifting The Burden’s global schools-based study, this cross-sectional survey administered self-completed structured questionnaires to pupils within classes in 24 nationally representative schools selected from seven regions of the country. Headache diagnostic questions were based on ICHD-3 beta criteria but for the inclusion of undifferentiated headache (UdH; defined as mild headache with usual duration
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020
There is a lack of evidence of the moderating effects of caries lesions and malocclusions on oral... more There is a lack of evidence of the moderating effects of caries lesions and malocclusions on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) among older adolescents. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship of dental caries and malocclusion with OHRQoL among Lithuanian adolescents aged 15 to 18 years. A survey in a representative sample of adolescents included a clinical examination to assess dental health status using the DMFT (Decayed, Missing, and Filled Permanent Teeth) index, and malocclusion using the Index of Complexity, Outcome, and Need (ICON). The Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ) was used to evaluate respondents’ OHRQoL. Negative binomial regression was fitted to associate the clinical variables with the CPQ scores. A total of 600 adolescents were examined. The overall mean DMFT score was 2.7. A need for orthodontic treatment was detected among 27.7% of adolescents. Subjects with caries lesions (DMFT > 3) had higher CPQ scores in the domains of functional limitat...
Straipsnyje pristatomo tyrimo tikslas buvo avertinti Lietuvos moksleivio saviþudiðko polinkio pap... more Straipsnyje pristatomo tyrimo tikslas buvo avertinti Lietuvos moksleivio saviþudiðko polinkio paplitima ir iðanalizuoti, kokius saviþudiðko mineio bei elgesio paaiðkinimus pateikia vienuolikos, trylikos ir penkiolikos meto berniukai ir mergaites. Atliktas darbas pagrastas 2002 meto PSO koordinuojamos moksleivio sveikatos ir gyvensenos studijos (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children – HBSC) duomenimis. Tirta kontingenta sudare 5645 moksleiviai: 2887 (51,1 proc.) berniukai ir 2758 (48,9 proc.) mergaites. Tyrimo duomenimis, saviþudiðki polinkiai budingi treedaliui (32,5 proc.) apklausoje dalyvavusio moksleivio. Saviþudiðko polinkio turintys moksleiviai linkae atskleisti jo prieþastis: jas nurode 42,7 proc. tiriamojo. Aptardami saviþudiðkas paskatas moksleiviai daþniausiai minejo slegianeius jausmus ir iðgyvenimus. Jaunesnieji moksleiviai mintis ir bandymus save þaloti itin daþnai aiðkino smalsumu ir noru iðbandyti avairius saviþudybes budus.
Comment 1 Regarding Comment # 1 in my previous report, please add the text in strengths and limit... more Comment 1 Regarding Comment # 1 in my previous report, please add the text in strengths and limitations section of the paper as follows: The study did not include information related to parents' and peers' cigarette smoking, or second hand smoke exposure at home or other places; which may play an important role in determining current smoking of young people, as the survey did not include related information. Nevertheless, our study focussed on the specific psychosocial familial determinants and their impact on young people smoking risk, and results provide baseline information in given context, which provide directions for improved tobacco control efforts intervening at family level. Answer: The comment was taken into consideration. The proposed text was added in lines 425-430.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2018
Recently developed and originally published in English, the Child and Adolescent HARDSHIP (headac... more Recently developed and originally published in English, the Child and Adolescent HARDSHIP (headache-attributed restriction, disability, social handicap and impaired participation) questionnaire is valid and acceptable for the global assessment of the burden of headache in children and adolescents. The present study aimed to translate, adapt and validate a Lithuanian version of this questionnaire. A total of 22 volunteers from 7 to 17 years of age completed the questionnaire with 24 h test-retest and a representative sample of 2505 schoolchildren of the same age participated in the main study. Test-retest reliability of the HRQoL (Headache Related Quality of Life) scale in the translated questionnaire showed substantial agreement (kappa: 0.604). Reliability and validity of the translated HRQoL scale were acceptable (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.749; test-retest kappa: 0.604, test for discriminant validity demonstrated that quality of life decreased by severity of headache). Factorial analysis...
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019
Background: The social inequalities in oral health have had increasing attention in recent years.... more Background: The social inequalities in oral health have had increasing attention in recent years. The present study aimed to explore the impact of family affluence on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL) among Lithuanian adolescents aged 11–18 years. Methods: The cross-sectional, population-based study included a representative sample of 881 adolescents aged 11–18 years (mean = 15.55; SD = 1.51) randomly selected from 20 schools in Lithuania. The schoolchildren completed questionnaires to evaluate their OHRQoL using a Lithuanian version of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire (CPQ). The adolescents’ family affluence was indirectly assessed by inquiring whether they possessed various modern life items. In dental examination, the severity of malocclusion was predetermined by the Index of Complexity, Outcome, and Need (ICON). The relationship among variables was examined employing the negative binomial regression and the path analysis. Results: The sum score of CPQ as a whole an...
Straipsnyje pristatomo tyrimo tikslas buvo įvertinti Lietuvos moksleivių savižudiškų polinkių pap... more Straipsnyje pristatomo tyrimo tikslas buvo įvertinti Lietuvos moksleivių savižudiškų polinkių paplitimą ir išanalizuoti, kokius savižudiškų minčių bei elgesio paaiškinimus pateikia vienuolikos, trylikos ir penkiolikos metų berniukai ir mergaitės. Atliktas darbas pagrįstas 2002 metų PSO koordinuojamos moksleivių sveikatos ir gyvensenos studijos (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children – HBSC) duomenimis. Tirtą kontingentą sudarė 5645 moksleiviai: 2887 (51,1 proc.) berniukai ir 2758 (48,9 proc.) mergaitės. Tyrimo duomenimis, savižudiški polinkiai būdingi trečdaliui (32,5 proc.) apklausoje dalyvavusių moksleivių. Savižudiškų polinkių turintys moksleiviai linkę atskleisti jų priežastis: jas nurodė 42,7 proc. tiriamųjų. Aptardami savižudiškas paskatas moksleiviai dažniausiai minėjo slegiančius jausmus ir išgyvenimus. Jaunesnieji moksleiviai mintis ir bandymus save žaloti itin dažnai aiškino smalsumu ir noru išbandyti įvairius savižudybės būdus. SCHOOLCHILDREN’S SELF-REPORTED EXPLANATION...
Increasing alcohol consumption becomes more relevant social and health problem among youth. There... more Increasing alcohol consumption becomes more relevant social and health problem among youth. There is no reason to believe that this problem will decrease or be solved in the future. In such situation, it is necessary to build on the experience and conclusions of research performed by other countries. In this article, the risk factors for alcohol consumption among youth and preventive programs, in which family, school, and community play the main role, are analyzed. Such programs may attract the attention of public health specialists and public health politicians and can be not only declared, but also really implemented.
The aim was to evaluate the prevalence and trends of drug use among students of vocational school... more The aim was to evaluate the prevalence and trends of drug use among students of vocational schools in Klaipėda city and to establish the relationships between psychosocial factors and drug abuse. Participants and methods. Two cross-sectional questionnaire surveys were carried out among first-year students of vocational schools in Klaipėda. Random samples of 912 and 342 students aged 16–19 years (representatives of Western part of Lithuania) were questioned in 2004 and 2006, respectively. Questionnaires were filled out anonymously in the classroom. Questions have covered information on drugs such as marihuana, club drugs, injectable drugs, and other drugs. Logistic regression was used for evaluation of relationship between drug use and different psychosocial and behavioral determinants of drug use. Results. In 2004, 56.0% of male respondents and 42.0% of female respondents have reported any drug use during their life. The analysis of standardized data (by the place of residence) show...
The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in the prevalence of smoking, alcohol and drug u... more The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in the prevalence of smoking, alcohol and drug use among Lithuanian school-aged children in relation to the place of residence, family affluence, and family structure. Material and Methods. National surveys (26 556 anonymous questionnaires analyzed) of schoolchildren aged 11, 13, and 15 years were conducted in 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, and 2010 in the framework of the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Results. In 1994–2010, a significant increase in smoking prevalence was observed both among boys (11.3% to 21.5%, P<0.05) and girls (3.6% to 14.8%, P<0.05). Weekly alcohol consumption increased from 9.6% to 12.9% (P<0.05) among boys and from 4.3% to 7.9% (P<0.05) among girls. The prevalence of “ever use” of any psychoactive substance (data for 15-year-old group only) increased both in boys (14.6% to 33.5%) and girls (6.7% to 18.4%). Urban girls smoked more often than their rural peers. For bot...
International journal of environmental research and public health, Jan 26, 2018
This study aims to explore how sufficient social support can act as a possible preventive factor ... more This study aims to explore how sufficient social support can act as a possible preventive factor against fighting and bullying in school-aged children in 9 European countries. : Data for this study were collected during the 2013/2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. The sample consisted of 9 European countries, involving 43,667 school children in total, aged 11, 13 and 15 years. The analysed data focus on social context (relations with family, peers, and school) as well as risk behaviours such as smoking, drunkenness, fighting and bullying in adolescents. The relationships between social support and violent behaviour variables were estimated using multiple regression models and multivariate analyses. : Bullying, across 9 countries, was more prevalent than fighting, except for Armenia, Israel, and Poland. The prevalence among countries differed considerably, with fighting being most expressed in Armenia and bullying—in Latvia and Lithuania. The strongest ...
Dental professionals are uniquely positioned to discourage smoking among their patients. However,... more Dental professionals are uniquely positioned to discourage smoking among their patients. However, little is known about the role of cultural background and attitudes towards smoking in the education of these professionals. Our study aimed to compare native Lithuanian and international dental students' smoking habits, knowledge about the harmfulness of smoking and attitudes towards smoking cessation. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of smoking and its cessation among dental students at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (Kaunas, Lithuania) in 2012. All Lithuanian and international dental students in each year of dental school were invited to participate in the survey during a compulsory practical class or seminar. Altogether 606 students participated in the survey with a response rate of 84.2%. Explanatory factorial analysis (EFA), multivariate Discriminant Analysis (DA) and Binary Logistic Regression (BLR) served for the statistical analyses. The percentages of oc...
International journal of environmental research and public health, Jan 8, 2017
The role of the family as the social environment in shaping adolescent lifestyle has recently rec... more The role of the family as the social environment in shaping adolescent lifestyle has recently received substantial attention. This study was focused on investigating the association between familial and parenting predictors and alcohol use in school-aged children. Adolescents aged 13- and 15-year from a representative sample (N = 3715) of schools in Lithuania were surveyed during the spring of 2014. The methodology of the cross-national Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study was applied. HBSC international questionnaires were completed in the classroom anonymously for obtaining information about drinking of alcoholic beverages and family characteristics-family's affluence and structure, style of communication in the family, parenting style, parental monitoring, family time together, etc. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied for assessment of the association between familial variables and weekly alcohol use. Analysis has demonstrated...
Uploads
Papers by Apolinaras Zaborskis