Original articleGender Differences and Predictors of Self-Rated Health Development Among Swedish Adolescents
Section snippets
Participants and procedures
The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty, Umeå University. Three Swedish municipalities were chosen, representing varying numbers of inhabitants, geographical areas, and levels of education among parents. Educational level of parents was considered a proxy for different levels of SES of the family [22]. Using data from Statistics Sweden, the schools for students in the seventh to the ninth grades were classified according to the educational level of the
Results
Background characteristics of the cohort at the start of the study showed that 49.7% of the population were boys and 50.3% were girls; 22.2% were 12-year-olds, 74.7% were 13-year-olds, and 3.1% were 14-year-olds; 93.5% adolescents were born in Sweden and 4.5% outside Europe; 50.6% had at least one parent with college or university education; and 56.8% lived in a city.
The distribution of self-rated health in the seventh grade was significantly different between boys and girls, with girls rating
Discussion
The general high level of self-rated health, especially among the boys, found in this study, is in line with results from the 41-country HBSC study, where a great majority of adolescents reported excellent or good health [1]. Swedish 13–15-year olds score somewhat better on self-rated health than that rated as average in the HBSC study [1]. Reports from epidemiological studies of adolescents often focus on the minority with less than good health. From a public health point of view,
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the participating adolescents and schools. The study received financial support from Center for Clinical Research Dalarna, Swedish National Institute of Public Health, Sparbanksstiftelsen Dalarna, Swedish Cancer Society, and Umeå University.
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