Socioeconomic differences in adolescent health widen
Health inequalities in young people have grown alongside socioeconomic disparities between the rich and poor.
The researchers examined the health of nearly a half-million adolescents in 34 countries between 2002 and 2010 using data from the World Health Organization鈥檚 Health聽Behaviour in School-aged Children study. The researchers found that although health improved overall in several domains, it also became more unequal between socioeconomic groups. Trends in body mass, physical activity, and mental and physical health symptoms showed widening gaps between affluent and disadvantaged youths.
This points to a grim outlook for future聽population health and human capital, the researchers warn.
鈥淗ealth inequalities in youths shape future聽inequities in education, employment, adult聽health, and life expectancy, and should be a聽focus of health policy,鈥� -- Dr. Elgar, of 平特五不中鈥檚 Institute for Health and Social Policy.
The authors suggest that health policy needs to look beyond average levels of population health and disease聽prevalence to tackle unjust inequities in health across聽increasingly disparate socioeconomic conditions. For聽example, a focus on increasing physical activity for adolescents in general could obscure the need to tackle inequality in physical activity, which has also increased.
鈥淥ur聽results also point to policy options for governments聽that could help reduce health inequalities early in the life course, such as reducing income inequality or investing in the health of disadvantaged youth,鈥� added Elgar, an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine鈥檚 Department of Psychiatry and researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, whose research centers on social inequalities in health and family influences on child mental health.
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The research was supported by the Canadian聽Institutes for Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities聽Research Council of Canada, and the Canada Research Chairs聽programme. The HBSC study operates under the auspices of the World Health Organisation and is funded by public sources in each member country
鈥淪ocioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health 2002鈥�2010: a time-series analysis of 34 countries participating in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children鈥� by Frank J Elgar (平特五不中, Canada), Timo-Kolja Pf枚rtner (University of Cologne, Germany), Irene Moor (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, Bart De Clercq (University of Ghent, Belgium), Gonneke W J M Stevens (Utrecht University, The Netherlands), and Candace Currie (St Andrews University, Scotland) will be 聽published in The Lancet on February 3, 2015,
To contact the researcher directly: frank.elgar [at] mcgill.ca