title: Adolescents' and school nurses' perceptions of using a health and lifestyle tool in health dialogues.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe and explore adolescents' and nurses' perceptions of using a health and lifestyle tool in health dialogues in the School Health Service.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  In Sweden, dialogues concerning health and lifestyle are offered to adolescents aged 14 years with the purpose of encouraging an interest in a healthy lifestyle. A health and lifestyle tool including a health questionnaire and a health profile has recently been developed, with the aim of facilitating the communication about health and lifestyle in these dialogues.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative descriptive design.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-nine adolescents and 23 nurses participated in focus group interviews, which were subjected to qualitative content analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The health and lifestyle tool was perceived as constituting a structure for the dialogues and as a clear and applicable starting point, focusing on individual aspects. The tool contributed to an understanding of the health situation and to the transmittal of health information on an individual as well as a group level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The tool was perceived as constituting a useful structure for the dialogues about health and lifestyle. When it was used the individual's health and lifestyle were concretised, which opened up for a dialogue and different aspects of health and lifestyle were detected. However, in some cases the outcome of the tool could be conceived as a stringent assessment and thereby complicate the dialogues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of a tool, such as the one used in this study, is one way to improve the dialogues in the School Health Service, allowing them to be more focused on the individual's needs and to detect aspects that would otherwise not be so easily detected. The implications of this study include using the findings to guide counselling sessions in the schools and other health care settings.
authors.affiliation: CHILD Research Group, Research School of Health and Welfare, School of Health Science, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden. marie.golsater@hhj.hj.se
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Golsäter
authors.forename: Birgitta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sidenvall
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lingfors
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Enskär
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017144:Focus Groups; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D012573:School Nursing; D013548:Sweden; D000078329:Workforce