Adolescents’ psychological health during the economic recession: does public spending buffer health inequalities among young people?

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 860 - 12
• Main Authors: Rathmann, Katharina, Pförtner, Timo-Kolja, Osorio, Ana M., Hurrelmann, Klaus, Elgar, Frank J., Bosakova, Lucia, Richter, Matthias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central 24.08.2016; BioMed Central Ltd; BMC
• Subjects: Adolescence; Adolescent; Adolescent Health; Adolescent psychology; Adolescents; Biostatistics; Buffers; Child; Child Health; Children; Economic aspects; Economic conditions; Economic Recession; Economic statistics; Economics; Environmental Health; Epidemiology; Europe; Europe - epidemiology; Family; Health; Health behavior; Health inequalities; health promotion and society; Health Status Disparities; Humans; Impact analysis; Logistic Models; Medical economics; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental Disorders - etiology; Mental Health; Multilevel Analysis; Position measurement; Psychological aspects; Public finance; Public Health; Purchasing power parity; Recession; Recessions; Research Article; Social aspects; Social Class; Social spending; Social Welfare; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomics; Studies; Teenagers; Vaccine; Young Adult; Young adults; Europe; Israel; Social spending; Adolescence; Multilevel analysis; Recession; Health inequalities
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-016-3551-6

Background Many OECD countries have replied to economic recessions with an adaption in public spending on social benefits for families and young people in need. So far, no study has examined the impact of public social spending during the recent economic recession on health, and social inequalities in health among young people. This study investigates whether an increase in public spending relates to a lower prevalence in health complaints and buffers health inequalities among adolescents. Methods Data were obtained from the 2009/2010 “Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC)” study comprising 11 – 15-year-old adolescents from 27 European countries ( N  = 144,754). Socioeconomic position was measured by the Family Affluence Scale (FAS). Logistic multilevel models were conducted for the association between the absolute rate of public spending on family benefits per capita in 2010 and the relative change rate in family benefits (2006–2010) in relation to adolescent psychological health complaints in 2009/2010. Results The absolute rate of public spending on family benefits in 2010 did not show a significant association with adolescents’ psychological health complaints. Relative change rates of public spending on family benefits (2006–2010) were related to better health. Greater socioeconomic inequalities in psychological health complaints were found for countries with higher change rates in public spending on family benefits (2006–2010). Conclusions The results partially support our hypothesis and highlight that policy initiatives in terms of an increase in family benefits might partially benefit adolescent health, but tend to widen social inequalities in adolescent health during the recent recession.