title: Country material distribution and adolescents' perceived health: multilevel study of adolescents in 27 countries.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the impact of country material distribution on adolescents' perceptions of health.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross sectional multilevel study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected from the school based health behaviour in school aged children: WHO cross national study 1997/98, which includes students from 27 European and North American countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  12 0381 students in year 6, 8, and 10 who were attending school classes on the day of data collection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adolescents in countries with a high dispersion of family affluence were more likely to have self rated poor health even after controlling for individual family level of affluence and family social resources.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are substantial inequalities in subjective health across European and North American countries related to the distribution of family material resources in these countries.
authors.affiliation: University of Bergen, Department Education and Health Promotion, Christiesgt 13, N-5015, Bergen, Norway. torbjoern.torsheim@psyhp.uib.no
authors.forename: Torbjorn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Torsheim
authors.forename: Candace
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Currie
authors.forename: Will
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Boyce
authors.forename: Oddrun
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Samdal
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009656:North America / Q000453:epidemiology; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012923:Social Class; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires