Browsing by Author "Gobina, Inese"
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Item Adolescents perception of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and associated mental health and well-being : gender, age and socioeconomic differences in 22 countries(2024-01) Reiss, Franziska; Cosma, Alina; Bersia, Michela; Erhart, Michael; Dalmasso, Paola; Devine, Janine; Hulbert, Sabina; Catunda, Carolina; Gobina, Inese; Giladi, Ariela; Jeriček Klanšček, Helena; Ravens-Sieberer, Ulrike; Department of Public Health and EpidemiologyBackground: The COVID-19-pandemic has had a profound impact on the lives of adolescents worldwide. This study examined the subjective perception of the COVID-19 pandemic measures and its association with mental health and well-being (i.e., loneliness, life satisfaction and multiple health complaints) among 13- and 15-years-old adolescents from 22 countries. Methods: Data from the cross-national Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2021/22 study were used from representative samples of 22 countries (N = 67,544; 51.9% girls). The self-perceived impact of COVID-19 measure comprised 10 items asking about the impact on several dimensions of adolescent lives (e.g., relationships with family and friends, health, or eating behaviours). Measures of loneliness, multiple health complaints, and life satisfaction were included as indicators of mental health and well-being. A non-parametric multilevel latent class analysis considering individual and country-levels was conducted to identify classes of self-perceived impact of the COVID-19 measures. Multilevel logistic regression models adjusted by age and socioeconomic status were applied to assess the association between COVID-19 measure impact classes and mental health. Results: Three classes were identified on individual level encompassing a neutral (51%), positive (31%), or negative (18%) perception of COVID-19 measures. A third of the adolescents reported a positive impact of the pandemic measures. The distribution of classes was heterogeneous within and across countries. Within the positive COVID-19 measure impact class, social relationships were the most important dimension, whereas mental health problems were mostly represented within the negative COVID-19 measure impact class. Girls with a negative perception of pandemic measures showed higher levels of loneliness and multiple health complaints and lower life satisfaction. 15-year-old adolescents and those with a low socioeconomic status reported higher levels of loneliness and lower life satisfaction. Conclusions: The majority of adolescents perceived the pandemic measures as neutral or positive. Girls, 15-year-old adolescents, and those with low socioeconomic status were at higher risk of suffering from pandemic measures and associated problems of loneliness, multiple health complaints, and low life satisfaction. We conclude that adolescent’s mental health and well-being should be considered in the decision-making process by ensuring that the unique challenges of adolescents are adequately addressed in policies.Item Adolescents' medicine use for headache : Secular trends in 20 countries from 1986 to 2010(2015-04-01) the Medicine Use Writing Group; Gobina, Inese; Department of Public Health and EpidemiologyBackground: This study reports secular trends in medicine use for headache among adolescents in 20 countries from 1986 to 2010. Methods: The international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey includes self-reported data about medicine use for headaches among nationally representative samples of 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds. We included 20 countries with data from at least three data collection waves, with a total of 380 129 participants. Results: The prevalence of medicine use for headaches varied from 16.5% among Hungarian boys in 1994 to 62.9% among girls in Wales in 1998. The prevalence was higher among girls than boys in every country and data collection year. The prevalence of medicine use for headaches increased in 12 of 20 countries, most notably in the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Wales. Conclusion: The prevalence of medicine use for headaches among adolescents is high and increasing in many countries. As some medicines are toxic this may constitute a public health problem.Item Alcohol-attributable mortality and alcohol control policy in the Baltic Countries and Poland in 2001–2020 : an interrupted time-series analysis(2023-11-09) Radišauskas, Ričardas; Štelemėkas, Mindaugas; Petkevičienė, Janina; Trišauskė, Justina; Telksnys, Tadas; Miščikienė, Laura; Gobina, Inese; Stoppel, Relika; Reile, Rainer; Janik-Koncewicz, Kinga; Zatonski, Witold; Lange, Shannon; Tran, Alexander; Rehm, Jürgen; Jiang, Huan; Department of Public Health and Epidemiology; Institute of Public HealthBackground: The Baltic countries–Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia–are characterized by a high rate of fully alcohol-attributable mortality, compared with Poland. Alcohol control policy measures implemented since 2001 in the Baltic countries included a restriction on availability and an increase in excise taxation, among others. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the relationship between alcohol control policy implementation and alcohol-attributable mortality in the Baltic countries and Poland. Methods: Alcohol-attributable mortality data for 2001–2020 was defined by codes 100% alcohol-attributable for persons aged 15 years and older in the Baltic countries and Poland. Alcohol control policies implemented between 2001 and 2020 were identified, and their impact on alcohol-attributable mortality was evaluated using an interrupted time-series methodology by employing a generalized additive model. Results: Alcohol-attributable mortality was significantly higher in the Baltic countries, compared with Poland, for both males and females. In the final reduced model, alcohol control policy significantly reduced male alcohol-attributable mortality by 7.60% in the 12 months post-policy implementation. For females, the alcohol control policy mean-shift effect was higher, resulting in a significant reduction of alcohol-attributable mortality by 10.77% in the 12 months post-policy implementation. The interaction effects of countries and policy tested in the full model were not statistically significant, which indicated that the impact of alcohol control policy on alcohol-attributable mortality did not differ across countries for both males and females. Conclusions: Based on the findings of the current study, alcohol control policy in the form of reduced availability and increased taxation was associated with a reduction in alcohol-attributable mortality among both males and females.Item Cross-National Trends in Adolescents Psychological and Somatic Complaints Before and After the Onset of COVID-19 Pandemic(2025) Cosma, Alina; Martin, Gina; de Looze, Margreet E.; Walsh, Sophie D.; Paakkari, Leena; Bilz, Ludwig; Gobina, Inese; Page, Nicholas; Hulbert, Sabina; Inchley, Jo; Ravens-Sieberer, Ulrike; Gaspar, Tania; Stevens, Gonneke W.J.M.; Department of Public Health and EpidemiologyPurpose: Building on research suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to an exacerbation of deteriorating trends in mental health among adolescents, this paper examined trends in adolescents' psychological and somatic complaints across 35 countries from 2010 to 2022, and tested trends in sociodemographic inequalities in these outcomes between 2018 and 2022. Methods: Using data from 792,606 adolescents from 35 countries (51% girls; mean age = 13.5; standard deviation 1.6) across four Health Behaviour in School-aged Children surveys (2010, 2014, 2018, 2022), hierarchical multilevel models estimated cross-national trends in adolescent psychological and somatic complaints. We tested whether observed values in 2022 were in line with predicted values based on 2010–2018 linear trends. Finally, moderation effects of age, family affluence, and family structures on the outcomes were tested (2018–2022). Results: Both girls and boys showed substantially higher levels of psychological complaints in 2022 compared with the predicted values. For somatic complaints, higher levels than predicted in 2022 were observed only in girls. Moderation analyses revealed an increase from 2018 to 2022 in age gaps and a narrowing in the socioeconomic gap for both outcomes. Also, there was a widening gap between adolescents living with 2 parents and those living in a single parent household in 2022 compared to 2018. Discussion: Cross-national increases in adolescent psychological and somatic complaints were higher than expected in 2022, based on previous trends. Magnitudes of change varied across different sociodemographics groups, with implications for pre-existing mental health inequalities.Item Developing the model for cross-sectoral cooperation for promoting health and wellbeing(EDP Sciences, 2022-01-11) Vroblevska, Elīna; Gobina, Inese; Springe, Lauma; Bukova-Zideluna, Aija; Liniņa, Indra; Villerusa, Anita; Vilka, L.; Vike, J.; Politikas zinātnes katedra; Institute of Public HealthIn the rapidly progressing world where different sectors become more interconnected, cross-sectoral cooperation in health promotion lacks a specific set of instruments, navigating partners through the cooperation process in project implementation. Cross-sectoral cooperation is an everyday practice in business and has become an integral part of promoting health and wellbeing comprehensively and sustainably. In this paper, we propose a developed Model for cross-sectoral cooperation, which has been designed within the Interreg Baltic Sea Region project “Urban Labs for Better Health for All in the Baltic Sea Region” (Healthy Boost), aiming to boost cross-sectoral cooperation for health and wellbeing in cities and municipalities. The Model is developed based on literature research and self-assessment of cross-sectoral cooperation for health promotion in Healthy Boost partner cities and municipalities in Latvia, Poland, Russia, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Sweden. Composed of five major domains (risk identification, leadership, coordination, communication, and motivation) and four stages of cooperation (mapping, planning, implementation, and assessment), it provides a checklist of helpful questions for identifying solutions effectively and systematically. The Model can be used both as a navigational tool and as an “emergency” tool to manage cross-sectoral cooperation challenges successfully.Item An international survey of pain in adolescents(2014-05-13) Swain, Michael Steven; Henschke, Nicholas; Kamper, Steven James; Gobina, Inese; Ottová-Jordan, Veronika; Maher, Christopher Gerard; Department of Public Health and EpidemiologyBackground: A common belief is that pain is uncommon and short lived in adolescents. However, the burden of pain in adolescents is unclear because of limitations in previous research. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of headache, stomach-ache and backache in adolescents and to explore the extent to which these three forms of pain coexist based upon a representative sample of adolescents from 28 countries. Methods. Data were analysed from three consecutive waves (1997/98, 2001/02 and 2005/06) of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children: WHO Collaborative Cross-National survey (HBSC). Prevalence estimates are based upon adolescents who reported experiencing headache, stomach-ache or backache at least monthly for the last 6 months. Results: There were a total of 404,206 participants with a mean (±SD) age of 13.6 (±1.7) years (range 9.8 to 17.3 years). The prevalence of headache was 54.1%, stomach-ache 49.8%, backache 37%, and at least one of the three pains 74.4%. Girls had a higher prevalence of the three pains than boys and the prevalence of pain increased with age. Headache, stomach-ache and backache frequently coexist, for example, of those with headache: 21.2% had headache alone, 31% suffered from both headache and stomach-ache, 12.1% suffered from backache and headache, and 35.7% had all three pains. Conclusions: Somatic pain is very common in adolescents, more often coexisting than occurring in isolation. Our data supports the need for further research to improve the understanding of these pains in adolescents.Item Pain and moderate to vigorous physical activity in adolescence : An international population-based survey(2016-05-01) Swain, Michael Steven; Henschke, Nicholas; Kamper, Steven James; Gobina, Inese; Ottová-Jordan, Veronika; Maher, Christopher Gerard; Department of Public Health and EpidemiologyObjective. To evaluate whether individual types of pain (headache, stomach-ache, and backache) or multiple pains affect the odds of young people achieving the recommended 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day in a large representative sample. Design. Multicenter cross-sectional survey. Setting. Twenty-eight countries across Europe and North America. Subjects. Adolescents (N 5 242,103). Methods. An analysis of data collected in two waves (2001/02 and 2005/06) of the health behavior in school-aged children (HBSC) study was performed. Survey questions included the HBSC symptoms checklist and the amount of regular physical activity. Multilevel logistic regression was used to account for clustering effect of MVPA within countries. Models investigated the relationship between pain and physical activity, adjusted for the HBSC study year. Six models were conducted separately for gender and age-group (11, 13, and 15 years) strata. Results. In general, the presence of pain was associated with reduced physical activity. Headache alone was associated with reduced physical activity in all six strata (odd ratios 0.77-0.84), stomach-ache alone in five strata (0.77-0.92), and backache alone in four strata (0.86-0.96). In 11- and 13-year-old girls, headache, stomach-ache, and backache, individually and in combination, were associated with decreased odds of being physically active (odds ratios ranging from 0.73 to 0.91). Within the other four age and gender strata, the relationship was less consistent. Conclusion. Pain is associated with reduced physical activity in adolescents but this association varies according to gender, age, and the type of pain experienced.Item Peer victimization and subjective health among students reporting disability or chronic illness in 11 Western countries(2013-06) Sentenac, Mariane; Gavin, Aoife; Gabhainn, Saoirse Nic; Molcho, Michal; Due, Pernille; Ravens-Sieberer, Ulrike; Matos, Margarida Gaspar De; Malkowska-Szkutnik, Agnieszka; Gobina, Inese; Vollebergh, Wilma; Arnaud, Catherine; Godeau, Emmanuelle; Department of Public Health and EpidemiologyBackground: To compare the strength of the association between peer victimization at school and subjective health according to the disability or chronic illness (D/CI) status of students across countries. Methods: This study used data from 55 030 students aged 11, 13 and 15 years from 11 countries participating in the 2005-06 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey. Self-completed questionnaires were administered in classrooms. Multivariate models of logistic regression (controlled for confounding factors and countries) were used to investigate differences in the association between peer victimization and poor subjective health according to the D/CI status. Results: Overall, 13.5% of the students reported having been bullied at least two or three times a month. The percentage of victims was significantly higher among those reporting D/CI than among others in all countries studied. Victims of bullying were more likely to report poor self-rated health, low life satisfaction and multiple health complaints. However, there were no differences in the associations between peer victimization and subjective health indicators according to the D/CI status. Conclusions: In all countries studied, students reporting D/CI were more likely to report being victims of bullying. Victims of bullying reported more negative subjective health outcomes regardless of their D/CI status. Although inclusive education is currently a major topic of educational policies in most countries, additional efforts should be made to improve the quality of the integration of students with D/CI.Item Semantics bias in cross-national comparative analyses : Is it good or bad to have "fair" health?(2016-05-04) Schnohr, Christina W.; Gobina, Inese; Santos, Teresa; Mazur, Joanna; Alikasifuglu, Mujgan; Välimaa, Raili; Corell, Maria; Hagquist, Curt; Dalmasso, Paola; Movseyan, Yeva; Cavallo, Franco; van Dorsselaer, Saskia; Torsheim, Torbjørn; Department of Public Health and EpidemiologyThe Health Behavior in School-aged Children is a cross-national study collecting data on social and health indicators on adolescents in 43 countries. The study provides comparable data on health behaviors and health outcomes through the use of a common protocol, which have been a back bone of the study sine its initiation in 1983. Recent years, researchers within the study have noticed a questionable comparability on the widely used item on self-rated health. One of the four response categories to the item "Would you say your health is....?" showed particular variation, as the response category "Fair" varied from 20 % in Latvia and Moldova to 3-4 % in Bulgaria and Macedonia. A qualitative mini-survey of the back-translations showed that the response category "Fair" had a negative slant in 25 countries, a positive slant in 10 countries and was considered neutral in 9 countries. This finding indicates that there are what may be called semantic issues affecting comparability in international studies, since the same original word (in an English original) is interpreted differently across countries and cultures. The paper test and discuss a few possible explanations to this, however, only leaving to future studies to hold a cautious approach to international comparisons if working with the self-rated health item with four response categories.Item Socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health complaints : A multilevel latent class analysis in 45 countries(2023) Hammami, Nour; Gobina, Inese; Lukoševičiūtė, Justė; Kostičová, Michaela; Lyyra, Nelli; Gariepy, Genevieve; Šmigelskas, Kastytis; Baban, Adriana; Malinowska-Cieślik, Marta; Elgar, Frank J.; Sabiedrības veselības un sociālās labklājības fakultāteOur study evaluated the relationship between adolescent health complaints and socioeconomic position in 45 countries. Data are from the 2017/2018 international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey which used proportionate sampling among adolescents aged 11 to 15 years old (n=228,979). Multilevel, multinomial regression analysis assessed the association between the multilevel latent classes with socioeconomic status (SES; at the household and country level). Three distinct latent classes were identified: No Complaints, Psychological Complaints, and a Physical and Psychological Complaints class; where, low household SES was highest for the physical and psychological complaints class. The findings suggest that health promotion policies and interventions among adolescents should consider the specific needs of adolescents living with low household SES as they report more subjective health complaints.Item Trends in health complaints from 2002 to 2010 in 34 countries and their association with health behaviours and social context factors at individual and macro-level(2015-04-01) the Positive Health Focus Group; Gobina, Inese; Department of Public Health and EpidemiologyBackground: This article describes trends and stability over time in health complaints in adolescents from 2002 to 2010 and investigates associations between health complaints, behavioural and social contextual factors at individual level and economic factors at macro-level. Methods: Comprising N = 510 876 11-, 13- and 15-year-old children and adolescents in Europe, North America and Israel, data came from three survey cycles of the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Age- and gender-adjusted trends in health complaints were examined in each country by means of linear regression. By using the country as the random effects variable, we tested to what extent individual and contextual variables were associated with health complaints. Results: Significant associations are stronger for individual level determinants (e.g. being bullied, smoking) than for determinants at macro-level (e.g. GDP, Gini), as can be seen by the small effect sizes (less than 5% for different trends). Health complaints are fairly stable over time in most countries, and no clear international trend in health complaints can be observed between 2002 and 2010. The most prominent stable determinants were being female, being bullied, school pressure and smoking. Conclusion: Factors associated with health complaints are more related to the proximal environment than to distal macro-level factors. This points towards intensifying targeted interventions, (e.g. for bullying) and also targeting specific risk groups. The comparably small effect size at country-level indicates that country-level factors have an impact on health and should not be ignored.Item Trends in life satisfaction in European and North-American adolescents from 2002 to 2010 in over 30 countries(2015-04-01) the Positive Health Focus Group; Gobina, Inese; Department of Public Health and EpidemiologyBackground: Life satisfaction (LS) is an indicator which is widely used for assessing the perception of a child's feeling about his life. Methods: LS is assessed in Health Behaviour in School-aged Children via the Cantril ladder with 10 steps indicating the worst and best possible life. This range of values (0-10) was dichotomized into 'low' (0-5) vs. 'high' (6-10). Countries, age groups and genders were compared based on the odds ratio (OR) of declaring a higher LS in 2010 with respect to 2002. Results: Analyzing the difference between 2002 and 2010, six countries from Western Europe show decreasing LS: Austria, Canada, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland and Greenland. In contrast, a group of Eastern European Countries, that is, Estonia, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and Ukraine, show a significant increase in LS. Data on gender and age differences confirm the lower rating of LS in girls and a decreasing rating with age. Conclusion: The LS scale appears to be a tool capable of discriminating the level of wellbeing of adolescent population among countries.Item Trends in multiple recurrent health complaints in 15-year-olds in 35 countries in Europe, North America and Israel from 1994 to 2010(2015-04-01) the Positive Health Focus Group; Gobina, Inese; Department of Public Health and EpidemiologyBackground: Health complaints are a good indicator of an individual's psychosocial health and well-being. Studies have shown that children and adolescents report health complaints which can cause significant individual burden. Methods: Using data from the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study, this article describes trends in multiple recurrent health complaints (MHC) in 35 countries among N = 237 136 fifteen-year-olds from 1994 to 2010. MHC was defined as the presence of two or more health complaints at least once a week. Logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate trends across the five survey cycles for each country. Results: Lowest prevalence throughout the period 1994-2010 was 16.9% in 1998 in Austria and highest in 2006 in Israel (54.7%). Overall, six different trend patterns could be identified: No linear or quadratic trend (9 countries), linear decrease (7 countries), linear increase (5 countries), U-shape (4 countries), inverted U-shape (6 countries) and unstable (4 countries). Conclusion: Trend analyses are valuable in providing hints about developments in populations as well as for benchmarking and evaluation purposes. The high variation in health complaints between the countries requires further investigation, but may also reflect the subjective nature of health complaints.