Economic stress and perceived health among adolescents in Sweden

Purpose: To describe the link between economic stress and perceived health among Swedish adolescents. Methods: The study is based mainly on data collected during 1995 from over 2400 adolescents in ninth grade. Data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire. The relationship between economic stress and perceived health was analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as multinomial legit. Results: Worry about family finances is strongly linked to the adolescents' perceived health, though their own relative economic deprivation also plays a significant part. The occurrence of perceived poor health is much greater among those who are frequently or constantly worried about their family's finances than among those who seldom or never experience such worry. The relationship between economic stress and perceived health is also stronger than the relationships between other types of stress and perceived health. In addition, those adolescents who, during the last month, have often been unable to afford various recreational activities, exhibit a greater degree of perceived poor health than others. Conclusions: Economic stress among young people in Sweden is emerging as an important determinant of perceived health. In view of the deterioration of the Swedish welfare system, great attention should be paid to the question of economic stress among young people, in terms of both research and public health. (C) Society for Adolescent Medicine, 1998.