Health risk behaviours among adolescents in the English-speaking Caribbean: a review.

BACKGROUND

The aim of this paper was to review and summarize research on prevalence of health risk behaviours, their outcomes as well as risk and protective factors among adolescents in the English-speaking Caribbean.

METHODS

Searching of online databases and the World Wide Web as well as hand searching of the West Indian Medical Journal were conducted. Papers on research done on adolescents aged 10 - 19 years old and published during the period 1980 - 2005 were included.

RESULTS

Ninety-five relevant papers were located. Five papers were published in the 1980s, 47 in the 1990s, and from 2000-2005, 43 papers. Health risk behaviours and outcomes were divided into seven themes. Prevalence data obtained for these, included lifetime prevalence of substance use: cigarettes-24% and marijuana-17%; high risk sexual behaviour: initiation of sexual activity

CONCLUSIONS

There is a substantial body of literature on Caribbean adolescents documenting prevalence and correlates of health risk behaviours. Future research should emphasize the designing and testing of interventions to alleviate this burden.