Role of parents in adolescent self-rated health: Norwegian Nord-Trøndelag Health Study

摘要

Background: Self-rated health (SRH) is a known important predictor of later mortality,morbidity, and health service attendance. From adolescence onwards, this multifactorialcomposite seems to be relatively stable. Therefore, it is important to study how SRH is alsoshaped and influenced by parental factors.Methods: Analyses were based on data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health studies in Norwayduring 1995–1997 among adolescent children aged 13–19 years and their parents. Cross-tableanalyses were made for parental and adolescent SRH. Proportional odds logistic regressionanalyses with parental SRH and a broad spectrum of other parental covariates were conducted,with adolescent SRH as the dependent variable, both unadjusted and adjusted.Results: Lower level of education, living alone, smoking, low general well being, and low lifesatisfaction were the most important parental factors associated with lower SRH in adolescents.However, the associations between parental SRH and adolescent SRH were rather weak, andin adjusted multivariable analyses lost significance for both genders. The net effect of geneticsand early vertical family influence on adolescents’ SRH thus seems to be moderate. Notably, theassociation between more specific health-related and lifestyle variables in parent and adolescentSRH was rather weak.Conclusion: SRH in adolescents seems to be shaped only partly by parental influence, and isless “deterministic” than might be expected from some genetic studies. SRH may therefore bemodifiable by health-promoting efforts in early life.