Health status among young people in Slovakia: comparisons on the basis of age, gender and education

Abstract

Health status among young people in Slovakia Sleskova, M.; Salonna, F.; Madarasova-Geckova, A.; van Dijk, J.P.; Groothoff, J.W. AbstractThis study examines the health status of young people in Slovakia. Six subjective health indicators (self-rated health, long-standing illness, vitality, mental health, long-term well-being over the last year and occurrence of health complaints during the previous month) were used to assess the health status of three age groups: first grade secondary school students (mean age 15.9 years), third grade students (mean age 17.8 years) and secondary school leavers (mean age 19.6 years). Females rated their health worse than males on all six indicators (most of these differences were statistically significant). For males, younger age was associated with better self-rated health, less long-standing illness and higher levels of long-term well-being during the previous year. For females, the age differences were more complicated: third grade females reported significantly worse health status in terms of vitality, long-standing illness and number of health complaints than the other two age groups. An analysis of health status by educational level (attendance at or completion of grammar, technical or apprentice school), revealed that grammar school third grade females reported worse health than all other respondents on all six indicators. The third grade of grammar school in Slovakia puts particular stresses on students and, since it has been suggested that females may react more negatively than males to stressful events, this may contribute to their more negative self reports. r

How robust is the evidence of an emerging or increasing female excess in physical morbidity between childhood and adolescence? Results of a systematic literature review and meta-analyses

“…Five of these studies presented longitudinal survey data (Grimmer, Nyland, & Milanese, 2006; Laaksonen et al., 2010; Larsson & Sund, 2005; Palacio-Vieira et al., 2008; Sweeting & West, 2003), 26 (repeat) cross-sectional survey data (Bigal et al., 2007; Bisegger et al., 2005; Cavallo et al., 2006; Gadin & Hammarstrom, 2000; Gordon et al., 2004; Haugland et al., 2001; Heinrich, Morris, & Kroner-Herwig, 2009; Holmberg & Hellberg, 2007; Jorngarden, Wettergen, & von Essen, 2006; Kujala, Taimela, & Viljanen, 1999; Laurell, Larsson, & Eeg-Olofsson, 2004; Leonardsson-Hellgren, Gustavsson, & Lindblad, 2001; Lundqvist, Clench-Aas, Hofoss, & Bartonova, 2006; Mavromichalis, Anagnostopoulos, Metaxas, & Papanastassiou, 1999; Meland et al., 2007; Mortimer, Kay, & Jaron, 1992, 1993; Ostberg, Alfven, & Hjern, 2006; Petersen, Bergstrom, & Brulin, 2003; Ravens-Sieberer, Erhart, Wille, Bullinger, & Bella Study Group, 2008; Rhee et al., 2005; Santinello et al., 2009; Sleskova, Salonna, Madarasova Geckova, van Dijk, & Groothoff, 2005; Sundblad, Saartok, & Engstrom, 2007; Torsheim et al., 2006; Wedderkopp, Leboeuf-Yde, Andersen, Froberg, & Hansen, 2001), and 10 routinely collected data (Beilmann et al., 1999; Carle et al., 2004; Casu, Pascutto, Bernardinelli, Sardinian IDDM Epidemiology Study Group, & Songini, 2004; Christensen et al., 2007; Cinek et al., 2000; Cotellessa et al., 2003; Freitag, May, Pfafflin, Konig, & Rating, 2001; Karvonen et al., 1999; Michalkova, Cernay, Dankova, Rusnak, & Fandakova, 1995; Skordis et al., 2002), such as clinic/hospital statistics.…”

“…These were a cross-sectional study (Cavallo et al., 2006) reporting an increasing female excess of fair/poor (vs. good/excellent) health between ages 11 (OR 1.36) and 15 (OR 1.97), and a longitudinal study (Sweeting & West, 2003) in which the female excess of fairly/not good (vs. good) health increased from OR of 1.01 at 11 to 1.44 at age 15. The other three cross-sectional studies of poor categorical self-assessed health shown on Table 2 (Holmberg & Hellberg, 2007; Meland et al., 2007; Sleskova et al., 2005) did not find statistically significant gender-by-age interactions, although the data presented by Holmberg and Hellberg (2007) suggest an increasing female excess.…”

Mental Health of Adolescents in Tehran, Iran

“…The higher risk of mental disorders among girls has been found internationally in many investigations [25][26][27][28][29]. In a study in high school students in Kurdistan, in western Iran, 27% of boys and 46% of girls were aware that they had mental health problems [30].…”

Parental support and adolescents' health in the context of parental employment status

“…Our sample consisted of 1992 secondary school students from 24 secondary schools in the Kosice region in Slovakia (Sleskova, Salonna, Madarasova Geckova, van Dijk, & Groothoff, 2005). The Slovakian school system is as follows: After leaving elementary school (9 years attendance), Slovak adolescents aged around 15 enter one of four types of secondary schools: 1) a four-year grammar school providing general education and preparation for university study.…”