[Health inequalities: self-reported complaints and their predictors in pupils from Belgium].
BACKGROUND
This paper identifies socioeconomic and sociodemographic predictors of respiratory/allergic health problems and subjective complaints in adolescents in Belgium.


METHODS
A cross-sectional analysis of the 1998 cross-national study "Health Behaviour of School aged Children" (HBSC) in French-speaking Belgium was undertaken. The survey was based on a self-completed questionnaire concerning various aspects of physical, emotional and social health. The five health problems (asthma, any other respiratory difficulty, allergy, poor subjective health, overweight and depressed feeling) were considered present when a positive reply was given to close-end questions stating if the pupils suffered, or have suffered from these problems during the last six months. We analysed a representative sample of 12,012 pupils aged 11 to 19 years in fifth and sixth grades of primary school, and in all six grades of secondary school.


RESULTS
socioeconomics gradients were found for subjective ill health, depressed state and overweight (p<0.01). Depressed state and overweight were linearly associated with a family economic score. Respiratory difficulties and allergies were observed mainly in pupils in technical training.


CONCLUSIONS
Pupils with a lower economic score have a higher prevalence of subjective complaints. It remains important to define determinants of subjective ill health and moreover, to act upon these results by increasing accessibility to health services when necessary, by adapting some others to young people and by tailoring interventions to objective and self-perceived needs.
Coppieters
Y
Y
Unité Promotion et Education pour la Santé, Ecole de Santé Publique, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Route de Lennik 808, CP 596, B-1070 Bruxelles, Belgique.
Piette
D
D
Kohn
L
L
De Smet
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001530:Belgium / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires