Health for all young people in Europe

According to the World Health Organization, health is more than the absence of disease. Health encompasses physical, emotional and social well-being. It is a resource that allows people to realize their full potential.1 To better understand how this conception of health applies to young people, researchers in Europe and Canada have jointly collected information from eleven to sixteen-year-old children on their health behaviours, attitudes and health status. This international collaborative project is known as the Cross-National Study cmi Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC). The project was initiated in 1982 as a collaborative pilot project involving researchers in England, Finland and Noway. Shortly thereafter it was adopted by the World Health Organization European Division as a collaborative study. In 1983-84 the first HBSC survey was conducted in the three original countries as well as in Austria. In 1985-86, eleven countries participated. In 1989-90 the HBSC survey was conducted in fourteen countries including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Wales.2 The major objectives of this international comparative approach are first to increase understanding of the factors associated with health risk behaviours among young people within the social context of their lives and second, to contribute to the development of strategies and interventions that will reduce risk behaviours. Surveys are conducted at four-year intervals to show changes in health risk behaviours and to identify factors that might have contributed to these changes. The behaviours investigated are tobacco and alcohol use, nutrition, exercise, dental hygiene, safety, and sexual behaviours. The social context includes the family, peers and school. The HBSC survey in Latvia in 1990 was the first ever national health survey of young people. The information gained from it represents a valuable data base that is directly relevant to the formation of health policy, the

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