Socioeconomic Differences in Adolescent Health-Related Behavior Differ by Gender

BACKGROUND: Many studies of adolescent health-related behaviors have assessed the effects of gender and parental socioeconomic position (SEP) but not their mutual modification. We investigated socioeconomic differences in health-related behaviors among Slovak adolescents and the potential modificati...

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Autores principales: Pitel, Lukas, Madarasová Gecková, Andrea, Reijneveld, Sijmen A., van Dijk, Jitse P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Japan Epidemiological Association 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3700252/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23604059
http://dx.doi.org/10.2188/jea.JE20120133
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author Pitel, Lukas
Madarasová Gecková, Andrea
Reijneveld, Sijmen A.
van Dijk, Jitse P.
author_facet Pitel, Lukas
Madarasová Gecková, Andrea
Reijneveld, Sijmen A.
van Dijk, Jitse P.
author_sort Pitel, Lukas
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Many studies of adolescent health-related behaviors have assessed the effects of gender and parental socioeconomic position (SEP) but not their mutual modification. We investigated socioeconomic differences in health-related behaviors among Slovak adolescents and the potential modification of those differences by gender. METHODS: Data were collected in 2006 (n = 3547; 49.4% boys; mean [SD] age, 14.3 [0.6] years; response rate, 93.5%). The sample comprised students in the eighth and ninth grades of randomly selected elementary schools in Slovakia. Gender-specific prevalence rates for 9 types of health-related behaviors, including nutritional behavior, physical activity and substance use, were calculated for 3 socioeconomic groups, which were defined by the highest educational level attained by both parents. Gender differences in socioeconomic gradients for health-related behaviors were tested. RESULTS: Socioeconomic differences were found in nutritional behavior, physical activity, and smoking. Adolescents with lower parental education behaved less healthily. The largest relative socioeconomic difference was no daily vegetable consumption among girls (90.3% of those with high SEP vs 95.2% of those with middle SEP; odds ratio, 2.33). Regarding no daily fruit consumption, differences among girls were 1.51 times and 1.92 times as large as those among boys for children with medium and low SEP, respectively, as compared with those with high SEP. CONCLUSIONS: Socioeconomic differences in health-related behavior were small, especially for nutritional behavior and physical activity. Interventions that aim to improve health-related behaviors among adolescents with lower SEP should focus on these 2 behaviors, particularly on healthy nutrition in girls with low SEP.
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spelling pubmed-37002522013-09-17 Socioeconomic Differences in Adolescent Health-Related Behavior Differ by Gender Pitel, Lukas Madarasová Gecková, Andrea Reijneveld, Sijmen A. van Dijk, Jitse P. J Epidemiol Original Article BACKGROUND: Many studies of adolescent health-related behaviors have assessed the effects of gender and parental socioeconomic position (SEP) but not their mutual modification. We investigated socioeconomic differences in health-related behaviors among Slovak adolescents and the potential modification of those differences by gender. METHODS: Data were collected in 2006 (n = 3547; 49.4% boys; mean [SD] age, 14.3 [0.6] years; response rate, 93.5%). The sample comprised students in the eighth and ninth grades of randomly selected elementary schools in Slovakia. Gender-specific prevalence rates for 9 types of health-related behaviors, including nutritional behavior, physical activity and substance use, were calculated for 3 socioeconomic groups, which were defined by the highest educational level attained by both parents. Gender differences in socioeconomic gradients for health-related behaviors were tested. RESULTS: Socioeconomic differences were found in nutritional behavior, physical activity, and smoking. Adolescents with lower parental education behaved less healthily. The largest relative socioeconomic difference was no daily vegetable consumption among girls (90.3% of those with high SEP vs 95.2% of those with middle SEP; odds ratio, 2.33). Regarding no daily fruit consumption, differences among girls were 1.51 times and 1.92 times as large as those among boys for children with medium and low SEP, respectively, as compared with those with high SEP. CONCLUSIONS: Socioeconomic differences in health-related behavior were small, especially for nutritional behavior and physical activity. Interventions that aim to improve health-related behaviors among adolescents with lower SEP should focus on these 2 behaviors, particularly on healthy nutrition in girls with low SEP. Japan Epidemiological Association 2013-05-05 /pmc/articles/PMC3700252/ /pubmed/23604059 http://dx.doi.org/10.2188/jea.JE20120133 Text en © 2013 Japan Epidemiological Association. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Pitel, Lukas
Madarasová Gecková, Andrea
Reijneveld, Sijmen A.
van Dijk, Jitse P.
Socioeconomic Differences in Adolescent Health-Related Behavior Differ by Gender
title Socioeconomic Differences in Adolescent Health-Related Behavior Differ by Gender
title_full Socioeconomic Differences in Adolescent Health-Related Behavior Differ by Gender
title_fullStr Socioeconomic Differences in Adolescent Health-Related Behavior Differ by Gender
title_full_unstemmed Socioeconomic Differences in Adolescent Health-Related Behavior Differ by Gender
title_short Socioeconomic Differences in Adolescent Health-Related Behavior Differ by Gender
title_sort socioeconomic differences in adolescent health-related behavior differ by gender
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3700252/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23604059
http://dx.doi.org/10.2188/jea.JE20120133
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