Country-level income inequality and risky health behaviors of "golden youth" in the post-Communist countries of Europe: A cluster analysis.

Autor:	Torchyan AA; Department of Social Medicine, Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI), Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200, MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands.; Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine and King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, P.O. Box, 7805, Riyadh 11472, Saudi Arabia., Houkes I; Department of Social Medicine, Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI), Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200, MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands., Bosma H; Department of Social Medicine, Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI), Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200, MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Preventive medicine reports [Prev Med Rep] 2024 Sep 05; Vol. 46, pp. 102880. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Sep 05 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI:	10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102880
Abstrakt:	Objective: We aim to study the "golden youth" hypothesis, which suggests that risky behaviors might be prevalent among affluent adolescents in post-Communist countries of Europe (PCCE) with high income inequality. Methods: We included 71,119 adolescents aged 11-15 from 14 PCCE participating in the Health Behavior in School-aged Children survey 2017/18. A K-means cluster analysis was conducted to group adolescents based on risky behavior. Generalized linear mixed models were fitted. Results: The proportion of high-SEP adolescents in Cluster 2, characterized by frequent alcohol consumption but moderate frequency of drunkenness, was greater than that of low-SEP adolescents (14.3 % vs. 10.7 %). The prevalence of risky behaviors was similar for high and low-SEP adolescents in Cluster 3 (high smoking, frequent alcohol use, drunkenness, and moderate bullying) (8.0 % vs. 8.2 %) and Cluster 4 (high bullying perpetration) (6.7 % vs. 7.2 %). Countries with higher Gini index were at greater risk of reporting risky behaviors. High-SEP adolescents were more likely to engage in risky behaviors in countries with high income inequality. The odds ratios comparing high- vs. low-SEP adolescents ranged from 0.89 in the least unequal to 1.67 in the most unequal countries for multiple risky behaviors (Cluster 3: P -interaction = 0.042) and from 0.61 to 1.19 for bullying perpetration (Cluster 4: P -interaction = 0.030). Conclusions: High-SEP adolescents in PCCE might be at increased risk for unhealthy and vicious behaviors, especially in countries with high income inequality. Redistributive policies decreasing the gap between rich and poor are needed to ensure the health and well-being of adolescents in PCCE. Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. (© 2024 The Author(s).)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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