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

Abstract

This 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.

Introduction

Several studies using self-reported health indicators among adolescents have been carried out in Slovakia in the recent years (King, Wold, Tudor-Smith, & Harrel, 1996; Currie, Hurrelmann, Settertobulte, Smith, & Todd, 2000; Geckova et al., 2001). Currie et al. (2000) conducted their study in 1997–98. They focused on early adolescents (aged 11, 13 and 15). Adolescents in Slovakia were among those who most frequently reported headache, stomach-ache and backache out of 28 world countries. Geckova et al. (2001) described health status among 15 year olds in Slovakia using self-reported health indicators. They found that Slovak adolescents did not differ in health status from those in Western Europe. Nevertheless, both these studies focused on early and middle adolescence. Less is known about late adolescence and young adulthood in Slovakia.

The present study has four aims. Firstly, to investigate the health status of young people in Slovakia using self-reported health indicators. This information is lacking in the international and domestic literature. The second aim is to explore age differences in health in three age cohorts of young people. We expect that in spite of the relatively small age range of groups in our study, age differences will occur. The third aim is to explore whether age differences in health status vary between males and females and between different educational levels. Educational level represented by type of school attended is a determinant of school environment experienced (indicating different exposure to stress, school atmosphere or different incidence of health risk behaviour) as well as an indicator of socio-economic status. It is therefore also an important determinant of health in adolescence (Madarasova Geckova et al., 2004). Consequently, educational level should be considered together with gender when exploring age differences in health. Finally, we want to find out whether the familiar gender pattern of less favourable health for females holds for young people in Slovakia.