(1) Tampere School of Public Health
(2) National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES)

Abstract

The objective is to find out to what extent the differences between schools in health of schoolchildren can be explained by individual- and macro-level variables, and to what extent we can interpret these differences as resulting from school-specific characteristics. We used data on pupils of 8th and 9th year (at age 15 and 16) in 361 comprehensive schools from the School Health Study conducted in 12 regions in April 1996 and April 1997 (N=65,163). The questionnaire was completed at a school lesson anonymously at the end of the lesson the filled questionnaires were closed in an envelope. The sample represents pupils in each of the regions where the survey was conducted. We measured pupils’ health by a summary index of eight self-reported symptoms: neck pain, low back pain, abdominal pain, being strained or nervous, being irritated or angry, difficulties in sleeping, headache, and being tired or faint. In descriptive analyses we found large differences between schools in perceived symptoms like in many other characteristics of pupils’ well-being and behaviour. The percentage of pupils with three or more weekly symptoms ranged between 14% and 44% by school. We will apply logistic regression to analyse whether the health differences between schools can be explained by individual-level indicators of lifestyle, socio-economic and family background and self-reported indicators of activities at school, and different levels of region as macro-level variables.

Keywords

Health differentials, Perceived symptoms, Health of schoolchildren, Differences by school

Contact

Andres Vikat

Institution

(1) Tampere School of Public Health, (2) National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES)

Postaddress

PO Box 607

City

FIN-33101 Tampere

Country

Finland

E-mail

andres.vikat@uta.fi

Phone

+ 358 3 215 7335

Fax

+ 358 3 215 6057