V Bohn1, K Rathmann, M Richter. 1. Fakultät für Gesundheitswissenschaften, AG Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung, Universität Bielefeld, Bielefeld.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Children and adolescents in Germany are generally considered to be healthy if health is measured with "classic" indicators of health. However, health impairments increasingly emerge in terms of psychosocial health. The present study addresses the question whether and what aspects of psychosocial health are associated with age, gender and socioeconomic status. METHODS: Data were obtained from the North Rhine-Westphalian sample of the "Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC)" study in 2006. Overall, 4 324 students aged 11-15 years were interviewed with a standardised questionnaire. Descriptive methods were used to analyse the association between age, gender and socioeconomic status and the four measures of psychosocial health. The socioeconomic status of the adolescents was measured by type of school. RESULTS: About 20% of the adolescents suffer from impairments in their psychosocial health. In general, girls report worse psychosocial health than boys. Student's perceived rating of psychosocial health decreases with increasing age. Independently of gender, pupils from general school rate their health worse than pupils from grammar school. CONCLUSIONS: The results underline that there are manifold health problems in adolescence, which can lead to severe diseases in later life such as chronic diseases. The findings suggest that preventive strategies should be directed toward girls and pupils from general schools. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart, New York.
OBJECTIVES:Children and adolescents in Germany are generally considered to be healthy if health is measured with "classic" indicators of health. However, health impairments increasingly emerge in terms of psychosocial health. The present study addresses the question whether and what aspects of psychosocial health are associated with age, gender and socioeconomic status. METHODS: Data were obtained from the North Rhine-Westphalian sample of the "Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC)" study in 2006. Overall, 4 324 students aged 11-15 years were interviewed with a standardised questionnaire. Descriptive methods were used to analyse the association between age, gender and socioeconomic status and the four measures of psychosocial health. The socioeconomic status of the adolescents was measured by type of school. RESULTS: About 20% of the adolescents suffer from impairments in their psychosocial health. In general, girls report worse psychosocial health than boys. Student's perceived rating of psychosocial health decreases with increasing age. Independently of gender, pupils from general school rate their health worse than pupils from grammar school. CONCLUSIONS: The results underline that there are manifold health problems in adolescence, which can lead to severe diseases in later life such as chronic diseases. The findings suggest that preventive strategies should be directed toward girls and pupils from general schools. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart, New York.
Authors: Linda Zimmermann; Thomas Unterbrink; Ruth Pfeifer; Michael Wirsching; Uwe Rose; Ulrich Stößel; Matthias Nübling; Veronika Buhl-Grießhaber; Markus Frommhold; Uwe Schaarschmidt; Joachim Bauer Journal: Int Arch Occup Environ Health Date: 2011-12-29 Impact factor: 3.015