The health status of South African youth joining Youth Employment Initiatives: a health promotion opportunity.

IF 2.3 4区医学 Q2 HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES

Health Promotion International Pub Date : 2025-05-13 DOI:10.1093/heapro/daaf061

Mimi Mhlaba, Tsholofelo Mohitshane, Nqobile Mnisi, Elelwani Nevhufumba, Georgia Torres, Florian Zech, Carey Jooste, Bridget Vermeulen, Lisa J Ware

{"title":"The health status of South African youth joining Youth Employment Initiatives: a health promotion opportunity.","authors":"Mimi Mhlaba, Tsholofelo Mohitshane, Nqobile Mnisi, Elelwani Nevhufumba, Georgia Torres, Florian Zech, Carey Jooste, Bridget Vermeulen, Lisa J Ware","doi":"10.1093/heapro/daaf061","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Youth Employment Initiatives (YEIs) support young adults to enhance their employability but infrequently consider their health. This study assessed the physical and mental health of South African youth starting YEIs to understand the need for integrated health service components. Youth (18-35 years, n = 193, 76% female, mean age 24.6 ± 3.6 years) were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy from the YEI programme within South Africa. Sociodemographic and health data were collected by survey, with a subsample (n = 90) undergoing cardiometabolic assessment. One-third of youth reported thoughts of suicide or self-harm in the past 2 weeks, with significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety in youth under 25 years. Obesity levels and blood pressure were significantly higher in youth 25-35 years (68% overweight/obese, 26% hypertensive). Our findings support the urgent need for integrated physical and mental health support within youth programmes to reduce both the future and current burden of non-communicable diseases.</p>","PeriodicalId":54256,"journal":{"name":"Health Promotion International","volume":"40 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12096450/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health Promotion International","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/daaf061","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Youth Employment Initiatives (YEIs) support young adults to enhance their employability but infrequently consider their health. This study assessed the physical and mental health of South African youth starting YEIs to understand the need for integrated health service components. Youth (18-35 years, n = 193, 76% female, mean age 24.6 ± 3.6 years) were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy from the YEI programme within South Africa. Sociodemographic and health data were collected by survey, with a subsample (n = 90) undergoing cardiometabolic assessment. One-third of youth reported thoughts of suicide or self-harm in the past 2 weeks, with significantly higher levels of depression and anxiety in youth under 25 years. Obesity levels and blood pressure were significantly higher in youth 25-35 years (68% overweight/obese, 26% hypertensive). Our findings support the urgent need for integrated physical and mental health support within youth programmes to reduce both the future and current burden of non-communicable diseases.

查看原文本刊更多论文

参加青年就业倡议的南非青年的健康状况：促进健康的机会。

青年就业倡议支持年轻人提高就业能力，但很少考虑他们的健康。本研究评估了南非青年的身体和心理健康，以了解对综合卫生服务组成部分的需求。青年（18-35岁，n = 193, 76%为女性，平均年龄24.6±3.6岁）采用有目的的抽样策略从南非YEI项目中招募。通过调查收集社会人口学和健康数据，并对一个子样本（n = 90）进行心脏代谢评估。三分之一的年轻人在过去两周内有过自杀或自残的想法，25岁以下的年轻人抑郁和焦虑的程度明显更高。25-35岁的青少年肥胖水平和血压明显较高（68%超重/肥胖，26%高血压）。我们的研究结果支持，迫切需要在青年方案中提供综合身心健康支持，以减轻未来和当前的非传染性疾病负担。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Health Promotion International Medicine-Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

CiteScore

4.70

自引率

7.40%

发文量

146

期刊介绍： Health Promotion International contains refereed original articles, reviews, and debate articles on major themes and innovations in the health promotion field. In line with the remits of the series of global conferences on health promotion the journal expressly invites contributions from sectors beyond health. These may include education, employment, government, the media, industry, environmental agencies, and community networks. As the thought journal of the international health promotion movement we seek in particular theoretical, methodological and activist advances to the field. Thus, the journal provides a unique focal point for articles of high quality that describe not only theories and concepts, research projects and policy formulation, but also planned and spontaneous activities, organizational change, as well as social and environmental development.