Candace Currie: Gender divide in health and wellbeing must be targeted

SCOTLAND ranks highly on life satisfaction, suggesting that our young people are relatively content with their lives.

This may, in part, be due to strong social networks, as Scottish adolescents also rank highly for close friendships, spending time out with friends in the evenings and daily electronic media contact.

Recent legislative changes appear to have led to decreases in soft-drink consumption and smoking behaviour. There has been a significant fall in weekly smoking in recent years. In 2006, levels of smoking were higher among girls than boys. By 2010, this gender difference had disappeared as a result of decreases among girls.

There have been similar decreases in alcohol consumption, but levels remain high compared with most other countries. Similarly, Scotland ranks poorly in terms of sexual health, with relatively high levels of sexual intercourse and low levels of condom use.

Gender inequalities are also evident. While boys are more likely to be involved in risk behaviours, girls are more body-conscious and are more likely to report poorer health.

Underlying girls’ poorer self-rated health and wellbeing may be higher levels of stress, which may be linked to physical changes at puberty as well as perceived pressure to do well in different spheres.

Future health improvement policy must continue to target these important inequalities in health and wellbeing.

• Professor Candace Currie is the International Co-ordinator of the HBSC study at St Andrews University.