In search of data on health inequalities of adolescents and young adults in the Brussels-Capital Region

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Samenvatting

Background. Early life experiences and the environment can have a significant impact on health in later life. Therefore, most research tends to direct attention to maternal health and well-being of children. Yet, lifestyles of adolescents and young adults are as much of importance for future health outcomes. While most health behaviour, such as smoking and drinking, has a negative impact on health later in life, some health problems manifest themselves early in life, such as mental health problems and specific types of cancer (e.g. leukemia). Another challenge is researching this theme in a metropolitan context. People in cities experience increased rates of non-communicable disease, injuries, and alcohol and substance abuse, with the poor typically exposed to the worst environments. The Brussels-Capital Region (BCR) offers an ideal location to examine health behaviours of adolescents and young adults. With its remaining migration flow and attraction of (international) students, BCR has rejuvenated and became more ethnically diverse in the last decades. Add to this the growing polarization, with a large share of young persons growing up in highly deprived neighbourhoods, and it becomes evident that health and health behavior of adolescents and young adults needs monitoring. Yet, data on this theme in the Brussels-Capital Region remains scarce.
Objective. This paper reviews the limited possibilities with the available data sources to do research on health inequalities of adolescents and young adults in the BCR and verifies the representativeness of the most suitable data source, the Health Interview Survey Belgium.
Data & Methods. Several data sources will be discussed in this paper, but special attention will go to the different waves of the Health Interview Survey Belgium. This dataset consists of data collected in 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2008 by the Scientific Institute of Public Health and contains information on the individual as well as on the household level. The distribution of our study population is compared to national registry data consulted on the website of Statistics Belgium (ADSEI, 2012). Weighting factors, constructed by the WIV/ISP, account for differences in age, sex, household and stratum size (province) and are both used and left out in the analysis.
Preliminary Results & Recommendations. The Health Behaviour of School-Aged Children (HBSC) Survey, carried out every four/five years in different developed countries (mainly in Europe), is the only dataset that extensively researched this topic. Unfortunately, this comprises only children and adolescents aged 10/12 to 18 years and separately for the Flemish Region and the French speaking part of Belgium. JOP-monitor reached only the Dutch-speaking part of Brussels for their publication of 'Young in Brussels', leaving no opportunity for representative analyses on Brussels' youth and young adults, and do not primarily focus on health issues. The Health Interview Survey Belgium should make amends with this, by oversampling the Brussels' population in order to reach a representative sample of the population. Although this may be reasonable when analysing the total population, it is less self-evident when focussing on a subgroup of this population. A recommendation for the following Health Interview Survey Belgium could be to include an oversampling of those aged 15-34 years during the sampling procedure.
Originele taal-2English
TitelPaper presented at the Chaire Quetelet
StatusPublished - 2012
EvenementChaire Quetelet 2012 - Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Duur: 5 dec 20127 dec 2012

Conference

ConferenceChaire Quetelet 2012
Land/RegioBelgium
StadLouvain-la-Neuve
Periode5/12/127/12/12
AnderMortalité et morbidité aux âges adultes

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