International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | March 2018 | Vol 5 | Issue 3 Page 1109 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Niranjjan R et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2018 Mar;5(3):1109-1115 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Psychological distress, hopelessness and health service needs of late adolescents in rural Pondicherry, South India R. Niranjjan 1 *, Sonali Sarkar 2 , Karthik Balajee 2 , Manikandan Srinivasan 2 INTRODUCTION WHO defines adolescence as the period of life between 10-19 years. 1 Adolescents face rapidly changing challenges in their social and physical environments. Their cultural beliefs, family structure and support, peer relationships and educational opportunities influence their behaviour and adjustment. Late adolescence encompasses the later part of teenage years between 15- 19 years. 2 This is the period where major physical and mental changes usually occur and also it is a time of opportunity, idealism and promise. 3 Globalisation is leading to rapid changes in these sociocultural systems in low and middle-income countries, and changing values and expectations of adolescents may influence the risk of mental disorders. Although adolescent health has gained increasing priority in India’s National health policies, the main focus has been on reproductive and sexual health. ABSTRACT Background: Late adolescence (15-19 years) is a period which entails stress and specific physical and mental health needs. The Objectives were to study the prevalence of psychological distress, hopelessness, and health service needs of late adolescence in rural Puducherry. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in a service practice area of Jawaharlal Institute Rural Health centre (JIRHC) during July-August 2015. A pretested questionnaire was used to obtain demographic characteristics, health service needs and substance abuse among adolescents and their family members. Self- administered GHQ-12 questionnaire and becks hopelessness scale was used to assess the psychological distress and hopelessness respectively. Results: Of the total 324 participants, 170 (53%) were females. The mean (SD) age was 15.9 (1.3) years. One fifth of the adolescents (20.9%) had psychological distress. Moderate level of hopelessness was seen in 32 (10%) adolescents. Substance abuse was found in 125 (39%) of the family members of adolescents and 55 (44%) had problems at home related to the substance abuse. On multivariate analysis, problem in household due to substance abuse was the single independent risk factor [aOR 2.6; 95%CI (1.1-6.0)] for psychological distress. Majority of females expressed their need for an exclusive adolescent clinic (58%), sexual & reproductive awareness (67.5%) and information about contraception (67.4%). The need for mental health services was higher in females compared to males (55.6% vs. 44.3%), which was statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusions: In rural area of Puducherry, one out of five adolescents had psychological distress and ten percentages of adolescents had moderate level of hopelessness requiring mental health and counselling services. Keywords: Psychological distress, Hopelessness, Mental health, Health service needs, Late adolescents 1 Department of Community Medicine, Aarupadai Veedu Medical College (AVMC), Pondicherry, India 2 Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry, India Received: 05 January 2018 Revised: 04 February 2018 Accepted: 05 February 2018 *Correspondence: Dr. R. Niranjjan, E-mail: niranjindia@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20180769