Objective: to assess the role of neighbourhood social capital, family affluence and risk taking on adolescent self-rated health.
Design: the survey reported here is part of the larger "Health Behaviour in School aged Children" (HBSC) project, an international study carried out in collaboration with the World Health Organization/Europe (WHO). The data were gathered through self-administered questionnaires on forms which had been devised by the international research group. The main areas covered in the questionnaire were health and health behaviour.
Setting and participants: 107 high schools were randomly selected from public and private schools in the Veneto region. The questionnaires were filled out by a representative sample of 2,395 (50.3% males) 10th grade students.
Main outcome measures: level of family affluence, risk behaviour, social capital, self-rated health.
Results: using binary logistic regression models, it is found that lower levels of family affluence (OR= 2.69 1.80- 4.02), lower levels of neighborhood social capital (OR= 2.97 95% CI 1.87-4.74) and higher levels of risk taking (OR= 2.23 95%CI 1.52-3,27) are independently associated with worse overall perceptions of health. These influences are not found to interact with each other. Moreover, girls perceived their health worst then males (OR= 2.57 95% CI 2.03-3.25).
Conclusions: risk taking, family affluence and neighborhood social capital are important factors to consider when addressing adolescent health promoting interventions.