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Girls growing through adolescence have a higher risk of poor health

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Abstract

Introduction:

Self rated health, in adult population, is strongly associated with mortality and life expectancy. In younger people this association is less evident, but it may anticipate a similar risk in adult life. Our research, based on the HBSC (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children) International collaboration, contributes to deepen the knowledge in this field by monitoring adolescents’ health through a multi-national survey involving 29 European countries, plus North America (Canada and USA) and Israel.

Methods:

Following an established methodology, the HBSC survey has elaborated a questionnaire on health and health behaviour, filled in by a representative national sample of 11-, 13- and 15-year-old boys and girls. The sample is constituted of more than 160,000 subjects interviewed during the 2001/2002 survey. Reported symptoms and self-rated health have been analysed by sex and age and through the different countries.

Results:

Girls resulted to have a poorer perception of their health, with respect to males, at all ages and in all countries (Overall OR = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.66–1.76). Age increases this risk both for males and females, with an average increase of 32% (95% CI: 29–34%) per year in the age-range 11–15. The situation is similar for reported symptoms, with an overall OR of 1.81 (95% CI: 1.77–1.85) for females of reporting three or more symptoms at least once a week; also this risk increases of 26% (95% CI: 24–27%) per year during the pre-adolescence phase. In both cases it could be shown a significant interaction effect between age and gender: OR = 1.19 (CI: 1.15–1.23) for perceived health and OR = 1.26 (CI: 1.23–1.29) for reported symptoms in females with respect to males.

Conclusions:

Even if adolescence is described as the healthiest period of life, a consistent minority of young people perceive and report a poor health and a high number of symptoms. Females are constantly in a worse position than males and older age groups are worse than younger ones.

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Acknowledgements

This study is developed within the work of the HBSC network. HBSC is an international study carried out in collaboration with WHO/EURO. The International Coordinator of the 2001/2002 survey is Candace Currie (University of Edinburgh); Data Bank Manager: Oddrun Samdal (Univeristy of Bergen).

The 2001/2002 survey was conducted by 35 Principal Investigators in 32 countries: Austria (Wolfgang Dür), Belgium (Flanders: Lea Maes; French speaking part: Danielle Piette), Canada (William Boyce), Czech Republic (Ladislav Csémy), Denmark (Pernille Due), Estonia (Mai Maser), Finland (Jorma Tynjälä), France (Emmanuelle Godeau), Germany (Klaus Hurrelmann), Greece (Anna Kokkevi), Greenland (Michael Pedersen), Hungary (Anna Aszmann), Ireland (Saoirse Nic Gabhainn), Israel (Yossi Harel), Italy (Franco Cavallo), Latvia (Ieva Ranka), Lithuania (Apolinaras Zaborskis), Macedonia (Lina Kostarova Unkovska), Netherlands (Wilma Vollebergh), Norway (Oddrun Samdal), Poland (Barbara Woynarowska), Portugal (Margarida Gaspar De Matos), Russia (Alexander Komkov), Spain (Ramón Mendoza), Sweden (Ulla Marklund), Switzerland (Holger Schmid), UK (England: Antony Morgan; Scotland: Candace Currie; Wales: Chris Roberts), USA (Mary Overpeck). New countries joining in 2001: Croatia (Marina Kuzman), Malta (Maryanne Massa), Slovenia (Eva Stergar), Ukraine (Olga Balakireva). For details, see http://www.hbsc.org

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica, University of Torino, Torino, Italy

    Franco Cavallo, Alessio Zambon, Alberto Borraccino & Patrizia Lemma

  2. Epidemiological Research Group, Robert Koch Institut, Berlin, Germany

    Ulrike Raven-Sieberer

  3. Research Center for Health Promotion, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Torbjørn Torsheim

Authors
  1. Franco Cavallo
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  2. Alessio Zambon
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  3. Alberto Borraccino
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  4. Ulrike Raven-Sieberer
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  5. Torbjørn Torsheim
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  6. Patrizia Lemma
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the HBSC Positive Health Group

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Franco Cavallo.

Additional information

Address for correspondence: Franco Cavallo, Dipartimento di Sanità Pubblica, University of Torino, Via Santena, 5bis, Torino 10126, Italy Phone: +39-011-670-5878; Fax: +39-011-670-5889; E-mail: franco.cavallo@unito.it

Kristina Fürth, Austria, Kädi Lepp, Estonia, Raili Välimäa, Finland, Céline Vignes, France, Christiane Thomas, Germany, Cornelia Haehne, Germany, Gyöngyi Kökönyei, Hungary, Inese Jece, Latvia, Katerina Naumova, TFYR Macedonia, Wilma Vollebergh, Netherlands, Saskia van Dorsselaer, Netherlands, Jørn Hetland, Norway, Margarida Gaspar de Matos, Portugal, Tania Gaspar, Portugal, Eva Stergar, Slovenia, Vesna Pucelj, Slovenia, Inmaculada Queija, Spain, Pedro J. Pérez Moreno, Spain, Victoria Muñoz Tinoco, Spain, Eva Leal, Spain, Mia Danielson, Sweden, Mary Overpeck, USA, Tina Kiaer, WHO.

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Cavallo, F., Zambon, A., Borraccino, A. et al. Girls growing through adolescence have a higher risk of poor health. Qual Life Res 15, 1577–1585 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-006-0037-5

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