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Embargoed Until 4 p.m. EST Thursday, September 30
Social Factors Play Key Role in Teenage Health
It's more than physical factors that affect teenage health. Social factors, particularly parents' education, occupation, and household income, also play an important role in susceptibility to adolescent disease, according to a study in the current American Journal of Public Health.
"The lower a family's socioeconomic status, the greater the risk of teenage obesity and depression and the more likely kids are to rate their health as fair or poor," says Elizabeth Goodman, M.D., director of research in the division of adolescent medicine at Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati and the study's author.
"There are larger social forces that place adolescents at risk. These forces are beyond teenagers' control. They can't just change their behavior and expect to rid themselves of the problem."
In her study, Dr. Goodman used data from more than 15,000 surveys of adolescents and their parents from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. She examined whether socioeconomic status affects levels of depressive symptoms and the prevalence of obesity, asthma, sexually transmitted diseases, and suicide attempts in adolescents. Each of these diseases has a major impact on public health, not only in adolescence but also in adulthood.
The study did not find a direct, consistent relationship between socioeconomic status and either sexually transmitted diseases or suicide attempts -- two acute diseases - or between socioeconomic status and asthma - a chronic disease. But it did determine an association between two other chronic illnesses -- depression and obesity -- and socioeconomic status. In addition, the study linked socioeconomic status to poorer ratings of overall health among teenagers.
For example, if neither parent had graduated from high school, 10 percent of these teenagers rated their health as fair to poor. But if one parent had a professional degree, just 2.9 percent rated their health as fair to poor. Similarly, 9.6 percent of teenagers living in families at less than 1.5 times the federal poverty threshold rated their health as fair to poor, while 4.5 percent of those whose family income is in the top 5 percent of household incomes rated their health as fair to poor.
As for chronic illness, Dr. Goodman found, for example, that 11.5 percent of teenagers whose parents did not graduate from high school were obese, while 4.4 percent of teenagers with one parent who has a professional degree were obese. And, 10.6 percent of teenagers living in families at less than 1.5 times the federal poverty threshold were obese, while 2.9 percent of those whose family income is in the top 5 percent of household incomes were obese. Finally, 10.6 percent of teenagers with both parents in manual occupations were obese, while 6.6 percent of teenagers with neither parent in a manual occupation were obese.
"It's crucial to consider teenagers' social context if we are to understand adolescent health and disease," says Dr. Goodman. "Socioeconomic factors take their toll."
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Media note: Dr. Goodman will be unavailable for interviews after 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30.
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