Citation

Paakkari L, Torppa M, Välimaa R, Villberg J, Ojala K, Tynjälä J. Int. J. Public Health 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Research Center for Health Promotion, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35 (L), 40014, Jyväskylä, Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00038-019-01280-7

PMID

31297559

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: We examined the associations between adolescents' health assets and various health indicators (smoking, alcohol use, sleep length, physical activity, healthy eating, oral health, self-reported health, multiple health complaints).

METHODS: A nationally representative sample was drawn from Finnish-speaking schools, comprising 13- and 15-year-old adolescents (n = 3833). The measures taken covered the adolescents' health assets, which were labelled Family-financial, Psychological, Family-social, Friends-social, School-social, and Human. Our analysis applied two-step cluster analysis and multilevel mixed-effects binary logistic regression.

RESULTS: Six asset profiles were identified: 'Limited in most assets, despite medium affluence', 'Mostly average assets, but low affluence', 'Mostly average assets, though high affluence', 'Mostly above average assets', 'Rich in most assets', and 'Rich in all assets'. There were significant differences between the profiles in terms of risk level and desirable level health outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents differ in their asset profiles. Having multiple health assets appears to protect adolescents from risky behaviour or poor health, and to promote positive health. There is a need for health initiatives to develop a range of health-protecting and health-promoting assets, rather than focus on only one.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescents; Health assets; Health indicator; Profiles