Minority status and perceived health: a comparative study of Finnish- and Swedish-speaking schoolchildren in Finland.
Results of earlier studies suggest that the health of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland is better than that of the sociodemographically similar Finnish-speaking population. The causes of differences are unknown. The main aim of the study referred was to investigate whether differences in perceived health according to linguistic group were present in a nation-wide representative sample (n=5,230) of schoolchildren aged 11, 13 and 15 years. A further aim was to determine whether differences could be attributed to socioeconomic background, social relationships or health behaviour. The study is part of the international Health Behaviour in School-aged children (HBSC) survey. The perceived health of Swedish-speaking children (n=1,699) proved to be better than that of Finnish-speaking children (n=3,531). In multivariate logistic regression models the differences could not be attributed to underlying associations with any variable studied. The health advantage of Swedish-speaking children essentially could not be related to known risk factors.
Suominen
S B
SB
Department of Public Health, University of Turku, Finland.
Välimaa
R S
RS
Tynjälä
J A
JA
Kannas
L K
LK
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005006:Ethnicity; D015444:Exercise; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D012424:Rural Population; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000208:ethnology; D014505:Urban Population