Girls growing through adolescence have a higher risk of poor health

Franco Cavallo, Alessio Zambon, Alberto Borraccino, Ulrike Raven-Sieberer, Torbjørn Torsheim, Patrizia Lemma, Kristina Fürth, Kädi Lepp, Raili Välimäa, Céline Vignes, Christiane Thomas, Cornelia Haehne, Gyöngyi Kökönyei, Inese Jece, Katerina Naumova, Wilma Vollebergh, Saskia Van Dorsselaer, Jørn Hetland, Margarida Gaspar De Matos, Tania GasparEva Stergar, Vesna Pucelj, Inmaculada Queija, Pedro J. Pérez Moreno, Victoria Muñoz Tinoco, Eva Leal, Mia Danielson, Mary Overpeck, Tina Kiaer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

105 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1577-1585
Number of pages9
JournalQuality of Life Research
Volume15
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2006

Keywords

  • Adolescence
  • Cross-national comparisons
  • Gender
  • Self-rated health
  • Symptoms load

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Girls growing through adolescence have a higher risk of poor health'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this