A Physical Health Profile of Youths Living with a “Hikikomori” Lifestyle

John W. M. Yuen, Yoyo K. Y. Yan, Victor C. W. Wong, Wilson W. S. Tam, Ka-Wing So and Wai Tong Chien
Additional contact information
John W. M. Yuen: School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Yoyo K. Y. Yan: School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Victor C. W. Wong: Department of Social Work, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Wilson W. S. Tam: Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, National University of Singapore, Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119077, Singapore
Ka-Wing So: Withdrawal Youth Service, Hong Kong Christian Service, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Wai Tong Chien: School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: A cross-sectional study was designed to understand the impacts of “hikikomori” lifestyle on physical health. A total of 104 eligible hikikomori cases were recruited from the social services network of Hong Kong with a mean age of 19.02 ± 3.62 (ranged 13–31) year-old, and had completed the set of questionnaires and a series of anthropometric and physical health measurements. Despite SF36 score of 84.0 indicated good physical functioning in general, participants were lived sedentarily with high incidence of hypertension at 15.4% and prehypertension at 31.7%. Occurrence of hypertension and prehypertension in cases living as hikikomori >6 months were 3 times and 1.5 times higher than those newly onset cases, respectively. The blood pressure levels were correlated with age and all obesity index parameters measured including waist circumference and body mass index. Results also observed a shift of body weight from underweight to overweight and obesity along the hikikomori duration. Half of the hypertensive cases involved the elevation of systolic blood pressure, which suggested higher odds of cardiovascular complications. In conclusion, the hikikomori lifestyle could be a risk behavior that may harm the younger generation physically by promoting obesity and hypertension and probably other chronic illnesses.

Keywords: hikikomori; hidden youth; social withdrawal; health; hypertension; obesity; adolescent; physical health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/315/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/315/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:2:p:315-:d:131405

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().