Abstract

Background: The social phobia or social anxiety disorder (SAD) is likely to play adversely on their adulthood if it is not detected and treated during adolescence period. The problem of SAD is varying in rural and urban population based on multiple issues.

Objective: The objective of the study is to estimate the prevalence and determinants of SAD (social phobia) among school children aged 11-16 years in rural population of Ramnagara district, Karnataka.

Materials and Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional, and descriptive study was conducted in the six schools in Ramnagara district of Karnataka during the month of August 2016. The pretested, semi-open ended questionnaire was used to interview school children aged between 11 and 16 years in the school premises. Data were collected from each child separately by investigators after taking the consent from the Principal. The information was collected on social phobia inventory (SPIN) scale and sociodemographic factors. The SPIN is a 17-item self-rating scale with minimum score as “0” and maximum score as “68” and adolescents were categorized as having SAD with cutoff score of more than 20. The data were analyzed in SPSS version 18.0.

Results: Out of 446 students, 232 were males and 214 were female adolescents. The prevalence of SAD was 39.7%. The mild, moderate, and severe SAD accounted for 24.1%, 13.9%, and 1.6%, respectively. It was more in the female adolescents (47.7%) and age group of 11-13 years (43.4%). The mean score was 18.23 (±10.7) and it was higher for female adolescents. Number of siblings, family type, active physical activity, sports, yoga, and meditation had influence on the prevalence of SAD on males and females as assessed by odd’s ratio and many factors were found to be statistically not significant.

Conclusion: The prevalence of SAD was two out of five adolescents, and one-fourth of the adolescents had mild grade SAD. The important determinants of SAD were age, type of family, and yoga.

Key words: Social Anxiety Disorder; Social Phobia; Social Phobia Inventory; Adolescent