It still takes a village: an epidemiological study of the role of social supports in understanding unexpected health states in young people

BMC Public Health

William Pickett¹  Valerie Michaelson²  Colleen Davison¹ 

[1] Department of Public Health Sciences, Carruthers Hall, 62 Fifth Field Company Lane, Queen’s University, Kingston K7L 3N6, ON, Canada;Department of Public Health Sciences and School of Religion, Theological Hall, Queen’s University, Kingston K7L 3N6, Ontario, Canada

关键词: Socio-economic status;    Social supports;    Health status;    Epidemiology;    Child;    Adolescent;   

Others  :  1164175
DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-015-1636-2

 received in 2014-07-15, accepted in 2015-03-15,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

This study of adolescent Canadians examines two groups who are anomalous in their health experiences: (1) those with perceived low affluence yet who perceive themselves to have excellent general health status; (2) those of perceived high affluence but who are reporting poor health status. Our hope was to explore the role of social supports in explaining such anomalies. We hypothesized that cumulative levels of social support available to these young people would have an influence on their perceived health status, with more support being associated with better self reported health.

Methods

Young people (n = 26,078 from 436 schools) aged 11–15 years were administered a general health survey in classroom settings during the 2009–10 academic school year. Descriptive and regression-based cross-sectional analyses (with an affluence-social support interaction term) were used to relate both individual and cumulative levels of social support in homes, neighborhoods, schools, and peer groups to self-reported health status.

Results

Social supports and their cumulative availability indeed were strongly related to perceived health, with more supports being associated with better self-perceived health. Less affluent children were much more likely to report excellent health in the presence of numerous social supports. More affluent children were much more likely to report poor health in the absence of such supports. The strength and dose-dependent nature of the findings were consistent and striking.

Conclusions

Study findings from this large, contemporary and national analysis affirm the importance of social supports as potential determinants of health for young people from both high and low affluent groups. Conceptually, findings affirm the wisdom of the ancient principle: “it takes a village to raise a child”.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Davison et al.; licensee BioMed Central.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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