Cyberbullying and traditional bullying among Nordic adolescents and their impact on life satisfaction.

Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of cybervictimization in the six Nordic countries and to assess its overlap with traditional bullying. A further aim was to examine potential associations between life satisfaction, on the one hand, and traditional bullying and cyberbullying on the other. Methods: Analyses were based on data from the 2013/2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. It included 32,210 boys and girls, aged 11, 13, and 15, living in the six Nordic countries. Results: The prevalence of cyberbullying by both pictures and by messages was around 2% in all the Nordic countries except Greenland. There it was considerably higher. The prevalence of being bullied in a traditional manner varied widely by country. For boys, this type of bullying was most frequent in the youngest age group and then decreased steadily in the older age groups. Girls were on average more likely to be cyberbullied. Cyberbullying was more common among 13- and 15-year-olds than 11-year-olds. Higher family affluence was unrelated to the risk of cyberbullying. However, it was related to traditional bullying and combined forms of bullying. Compared with intact families, cybervictimization was commoner among single-parent families and stepfamilies. Adjusting for age, gender, family affluence, and family structure, those subjected to cyberbullying had lower life satisfaction than those who were not bullied. Conclusions: We found relatively little overlap between cyberbullying and traditional bullying, indicating that the two may be separate phenomena stemming from different mechanisms, at least in the Nordic context.

Social inequalities in self-rated health: A comparative cross-national study among 32,560 Nordic adolescents.

AIMS: We aimed to estimate the magnitude of socioeconomic inequality in self-rated health among Nordic adolescents (aged 11, 13 and 15 years) using the Family Affluence Scale (a composite measure of material assets) and perceived family wealth as indicators of socioeconomic status. METHODS: Data were collected from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey in 2013-2014. A sample of 32,560 adolescents from Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Greenland and Sweden was included in the study. Age-adjusted regression analyses were used to estimate associations between fair or poor self-rated health and the ridit scores for family affluence and perceived wealth. RESULTS: The pooled relative index of inequality of 2.10 indicates that the risk of fair or poor health was about twice as high for young people with the lowest family affluence relative to those with the highest family affluence. The relative index of inequality for observed family affluence was highest in Denmark and lowest in Norway. For perceived family wealth, the pooled relative index of inequality of 3.99 indicates that the risk of fair or poor health was about four times as high for young people with the lowest perceived family wealth relative to those with the highest perceived family wealth. The relative index of inequality for perceived family wealth was highest in Iceland and lowest in Greenland. CONCLUSIONS: Social inequality in self-rated health among adolescents was found to be robust across subjective and objective indicators of family affluence in the Nordic welfare states.

Semantics bias in cross-national comparative analyses: is it good or bad to have "fair" health?

The Health Behavior in School-aged Children is a cross-national study collecting data on social and health indicators on adolescents in 43 countries. The study provides comparable data on health behaviors and health outcomes through the use of a common protocol, which have been a back bone of the study sine its initiation in 1983. Recent years, researchers within the study have noticed a questionable comparability on the widely used item on self-rated health. One of the four response categories to the item "Would you say your health is….?" showed particular variation, as the response category "Fair" varied from 20 % in Latvia and Moldova to 3-4 % in Bulgaria and Macedonia. A qualitative mini-survey of the back-translations showed that the response category "Fair" had a negative slant in 25 countries, a positive slant in 10 countries and was considered neutral in 9 countries. This finding indicates that there are what may be called semantic issues affecting comparability in international studies, since the same original word (in an English original) is interpreted differently across countries and cultures. The paper test and discuss a few possible explanations to this, however, only leaving to future studies to hold a cautious approach to international comparisons if working with the self-rated health item with four response categories.

Trend analyses in the health behaviour in school-aged children study: methodological considerations and recommendations.

BACKGROUND: This article presents the scope and development of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, reviews trend papers published on international HBSC data up to 2012 and discusses the efforts made to produce reliable trend analyses. METHODS: The major goal of this article is to present the statistical procedures and analytical strategies for upholding high data quality, as well as reflections from the authors of this article on how to produce reliable trends based on an international study of the magnitude of the HBSC study. HBSC is an international cross-sectional study collecting data from adolescents aged 11-15 years, on a broad variety of health determinants and health behaviours. RESULTS: A number of methodological challenges have stemmed from the growth of the HBSC-study, in particular given that the study has a focus on monitoring trends. Some of those challenges are considered. When analysing trends, researchers must be able to assess whether a change in prevalence is an expression of an actual change in the observed outcome, whether it is a result of methodological artefacts, or whether it is due to changes in the conceptualization of the outcome by the respondents. CONCLUSION: The article present recommendations to take a number of the considerations into account. The considerations imply methodological challenges, which are core issues in undertaking trend analyses.

The association between high recreational physical activity and physical activity as a part of daily living in adolescents and availability of local indoor sports facilities and sports clubs.

AIM: The aim of this study was to examine how vigorous physical activity (recreational physical activity) (VPA) and moderate to vigorous physical activity as a part of daily life (MVPA) is associated with structural characteristics (availability of sports facilities and sports clubs with child members) in Greenlandic adolescents. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data from the 2006 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey including 2,430 children aged 11-17 years was used. Logistic regression models were developed with dichotomous measures on VPA and MVPA as outcomes, number of indoor sports facilities and of sports clubs with child members as independent variables, and adjusted for age, gender, family affluence (FAS), and type of habitation (capital, town or village). RESULTS: High VPA increased with access to indoor facilities, while high MVPA was less likely (odds ratio (OR) 0.54 (0.42-0.70)) if indoor sports facilities were present, both unadjusted and adjusted. Access to a local sports club increased OR for high VPA both unadjusted and adjusted to about 2.3 for five or more clubs, while access to sports clubs was not associated with unadjusted MVPA, negatively associated if adjusted for age, gender and FAS but positively associated if also adjusted for indoor sports facilities. CONCLUSIONS: Access to indoor sports facilities itself had a positive association with high VPA, but was persistently negatively associated with high MVPA. Presence of sports clubs with child members was positively associated with high VPA while the association with high MVPA was more complex. The findings have implications for public health planning.

Greenlandic schoolchildren's compliance with national dietary guidelines.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to examine to what extent children and adolescents in Greenland comply with the national dietary guidelines, and to analyse the influence of habitation and family affluence on the compliance with dietary guidelines. DESIGN: Data were from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey in Greenland. The 2006 survey included 2462 students aged 11 to 17 years. RESULTS: The proportion of students complying with the national dietary guidelines varied from 14 % to 87 % depending on the food item. Sweets and soft drinks had the lowest compliance. The oldest children had the following characteristics compared with the younger children: fewer ate traditional Greenlandic foods, fewer ate fruit, fewer ate breakfast daily on school days and more drank soft drinks frequently. More boys than girls ate traditional Greenlandic foods often, while more girls ate vegetables daily. The least favourable eating habits in general were found among children from low affluent families and children in villages. CONCLUSIONS: Many Greenlandic schoolchildren did not comply with the national dietary guidelines. Despite a higher intake of traditional foods as a whole, children in villages and less affluent children were less likely to comply with guidelines. A strong relationship between diet, family affluence and availability was found. The study findings indicate that factors such as availability, cost and seasonal variation are important to the intake of both imported and traditional Greenlandic foods. The findings should be taken into consideration when promoting the national guidelines.

Screen-based activities and physical complaints among adolescents from the Nordic countries.

BACKGROUND: A positive association between time spent on sedentary screen-based activities and physical complaints has been reported, but the cumulative association between different types of screen-based activities and physical complaints has not been examined thoroughly. METHODS: The cross-sectional association between screen-based activity and physical complaints (backache and headache) among students was examined in a sample of 31022 adolescents from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Greenland, as part of the Health behaviour in school-aged children 2005/06 (HBSC) study. Daily hours spent on screen-based activities and levels of physical complaints were assessed using self-reports. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis indicated that computer use, computer gaming and TV viewing contributed uniquely to prediction of weekly backache and headache. The magnitude of associations was consistent across types of screen based activities, and across gender. CONCLUSION: The observed associations indicate that time spent on screen-based activity is a contributing factor to physical complaints among young people, and that effects accumulate across different types of screen-based activities.

School-related mediators in social inequalities in smoking: a comparative cross-sectional study of 20,399 adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to examine the associations between social inequalities and daily smoking among 13 and 15 year olds, and to determine the role of students' academic achievement and school satisfaction in these associations. METHODS: HBSC is an international study including adolescents from 32 countries in Europe, Israel, and North America. The present study was based on information from 20,399 adolescents from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and the United Kingdom. Data were analysed by regression models. RESULTS: The initial analyses showed significant inequality in daily smoking in all countries except for Sweden. When adjusted for the mediating role of academic achievement, estimates were attenuated, but remained significant in three countries. CONCLUSION: The study found social inequality in daily smoking in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and United Kingdom, as well as inequalities in students' academic achievement and school satisfaction. The analyses also showed that above average academic achievement was associated with lower OR of smoking. Teachers and politicians may find this information useful, and allocate resources to give higher priority to a supportive environment in schools especially for children and adolescents in lower social groups. Subsequently this prioritisation might contribute to reducing smoking in this group.

The role of national policies intended to regulate adolescent smoking in explaining the prevalence of daily smoking: a study of adolescents from 27 European countries.

AIMS: This study seeks to examine whether contextual factors influence adolescents' daily smoking. A focus was placed on three modifiable policies operating at a national level, non-smoking policy at educational facilities, price and minimum age for buying tobacco. DESIGN: This study is based on a merged data set consisting of the 2001/02 Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study and national-level data collected from the 2003 WHO European Tobacco Control Database and the World Development Indicators Database. HBSC is an international study including adolescents from 32 countries in Europe, Israel and North America. Data were analysed with multi-level hierarchical regression models. FINDINGS: The study found large differences in the prevalence of daily smoking among adolescents, and also large differences between boys and girls within some countries. The study found that smoking bans in schools were associated with lower odds ratios of daily smoking, which was the one positive association in the study. The study found no association between cigarette prices and adolescent daily smoking prevalence, and also the somewhat unexpected finding that having an age limit for allowing adolescents to purchase tobacco was associated with an increased risk of daily smoking. CONCLUSIONS: There was an association between mandatory national bans on smoking and lower smoking prevalence. This should be confirmed by studies that examine whether mandatory bans are more rigorously implemented than voluntary bans. If this association is causal, introducing mandatory bans may reduce adolescent smoking prevalence. The findings that price was unrelated to smoking prevalence undermine findings elsewhere that adolescent smokers are more price-sensitive than adult smokers, but longitudinal studies are needed.

Danish translation of a physical function item bank from the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS).

BACKGROUND: The Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) is an assessment system that aims to provide more valid, reliable, responsive, and precise patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures than has been previously available. This paper documents the translation of the Physical Function item bank into Danish. METHODS: We followed the PROMIS standard procedure, including: 1) two independent translations, 2) back translation, 3) independent reviews of translation quality, and 4) cognitive interviews with a representative sample of the adult population from the municipality of Copenhagen. After each phase, the new information was reviewed and the Danish version of the PROMIS Physical Function items was revised, if warranted. RESULTS: Relatively few problems were related to translation in itself and such problems could be fixed by changes in item wordings to fit the Danish context. Cognitive testing revealed problem of a general issue: annoyance in case of mismatch between respondents' functional level and question difficulty, problems imagining performance on activities that the respondents did not usually do, and uncertainty whether mobility aids (e.g., canes and walkers) should be considered when performing an activity. Solutions to the more general issues would require revisions to the original items. CONCLUSIONS: The standard translation methodology was successful in eliminating problems in translation, and pointed to problems of a general issue in some of the original questions, producing translated Danish versions of the PROMIS Physical Functioning items. Translation and validation studies provide a valuable source when revising and improving PROs in a clinical setting or for research. The present paper exemplifies this with experiences from Denmark. The study describes how the use of PROs when measuring physical functioning in a Danish context can be improved-hence improving the items used for research, future trials and in clinical settings.

Adverse health effects of experiencing food insecurity among Greenlandic school children.

BACKGROUND: In vulnerable populations, food security in children has been found to be associated with negative health effects. Still, little is known about whether the negative health effects can be retrieved in children at the population level. OBJECTIVE: To examine food insecurity reported by Greenlandic school children as a predictor for perceived health, physical symptoms and medicine use. DESIGN: The study is based on the Greenlandic part of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey. The 2010 survey included 2,254 students corresponding to 40% of all Greenlandic school children in Grade 5 through 10. The participation rate in the participating schools was 65%. Food insecurity was measured as going to bed or to school hungry because there was no food at home. RESULTS: Boys, the youngest children (11-12 year-olds), and children from low affluence homes were at increased risk for food insecurity. Poor or fair self-rated health, medicine use last month and physical symptoms during the last 6 months were all more frequent in children reporting food insecurity. Controlling for age, gender and family affluence odds ratio (OR) for self-rated health was 1.60 (95% confidence interval (CI 1.23-2.06) (p < 0.001), for reporting physical symptoms 1.34 (95% CI 1.06-1.68) (p = 0.01) and for medicine use 1.79 (95% CI 1.42-2.26) (p < 0.001). Stratification on age groups suggested that children in different age groups experience different health consequences of food insecurity. The oldest children reported food insecurity less often and experienced less negative health effects compared to the younger children. CONCLUSIONS: All 3 measures of health were negatively associated to the occurrence of food insecurity in Greenlandic school children aged 11-17. Food security must be seen as a public health issue of concern, and policies should be enforced to prevent food poverty particularly among boys, younger school children and children from low affluence homes.

Absolute and relative family affluence and psychosomatic symptoms in adolescents.

Previous research on the links between income inequality and health and socioeconomic differences in health suggests that relative differences in affluence impact health and well-being more than absolute affluence. This study explored whether self-reported psychosomatic symptoms in adolescents relate more closely to relative affluence (i.e., relative deprivation or rank affluence within regions or schools) than to absolute affluence. Data on family material assets and psychosomatic symptoms were collected from 48,523 adolescents in eight countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Scotland, Poland, Turkey, and Ukraine) as part of the 2009/10 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. Multilevel regression analyses of the data showed that relative deprivation (Yitzhaki Index, calculated in regions and in schools) and rank affluence (in regions) (1) related more closely to symptoms than absolute affluence, and (2) related to symptoms after differences in absolute affluence were held constant. However, differences in family material assets, whether they are measured in absolute or relative terms, account for a significant variation in adolescent psychosomatic symptoms. Conceptual and empirical issues relating to the use of material affluence indices to estimate socioeconomic position are discussed.

National Income and Income Inequality, Family Affluence and Life Satisfaction Among 13 year Old Boys and Girls: A Multilevel Study in 35 Countries.

Adolescence is a critical period where many patterns of health and health behaviour are formed. The objective of this study was to investigate cross-national variation in the relationship between family affluence and adolescent life satisfaction, and the impact of national income and income inequality on this relationship. Data from the 2006 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children: WHO collaborative Study (N = 58,352 across 35 countries) were analysed using multilevel linear and logistic regression analyses for outcome measures life satisfaction score and binary high/low life satisfaction. National income and income inequality were associated with aggregated life satisfaction score and prevalence of high life satisfaction. Within-country socioeconomic inequalities in life satisfaction existed even after adjustment for family structure. This relationship was curvilinear and varied cross-nationally. Socioeconomic inequalities were greatest in poor countries and in countries with unequal income distribution. GDP (PPP US$) and Gini did not explain between country variance in socioeconomic inequalities in life satisfaction. The existence of, and variation in, within-country socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent life satisfaction highlights the importance of identifying and addressing mediating factors during this life stage.

Onset of overweight in Nuuk, Greenland: a retrospective cohort study of children from 1973 to 1992.

The purpose of the study was to examine the age at onset of overweight and obesity of 2-15-year-old children in Nuuk, Greenland, born between 1973 and 1992. The study was a retrospective cohort study. The data were retrieved from the children's individual health files containing information on height and weight, and the database contained a total of 12,002 measurements of BMI in 3,094 children (1,522 boys and 1,572 girls). The main outcome measure was age at onset of overweight-the age at which BMI was above an internationally recommended cutoff point for overweight. The study showed that an increasing proportion of children reached the overweight state and did so at an earlier age for later cohorts. This was seen for both boys and girls. Overweight was less prevalent among boys in all cohorts. For the 1973-1992 cohorts of children from Nuuk, Greenland, the age at onset of overweight was significantly decreased.