Technical Report - Donegal Traveller's Project

Health Survey FindingsCommentaryFewer HBSC SC 5-6 12-14-year-old children rated their health as ‘excellent’, in comparison with theparental report of the health of the 14-year-old Traveller children (34.4% vs 52.9% in ROI and 54.5% of NITravellers) (Table 246).91.1% percent of 12 to14-year-old children in SC 5-6 in the HBSC study brush their teeth daily or morethan daily, compared with 88.4% of ROI and 87.5% of NI Traveller 14-year-olds. Only small numbers ofTraveller children have tried tobacco in this age group, compared with 29.1% of HBSC 12 to 14-year-oldchildren in SC 5-6. At age 14, by parental report, 92.6% of ROI Travellers and 91.1% of NI Travellers neverdrink alcohol, compared with 76.7% of HBSC 12 to 14-year-olds in SC 5-6. However, it should be onceagain noted that HBSC data is gathered by child report.Of the HBSC SC 5-6 12 to14-year-olds, 78.8% always use a seatbelt when they sit in a car, compared with82.3% of ROI and only 64.8% of NI 14-year-old Travellers. Physical activity is shown in Figure 15. Onceagain, as in the 9-year-old group, the NI children are less active than ROI and HBSC children, althoughthe absolute number of respondents in this NI group is small.Figure 15: Percentage of 14-year-old children who are physically active for a least an hour aday, by number of days of activity a week.504540% of 14-year-old children353025201510504-6 days7 days 4-6 days 7 days 4-6 days 7 days 4-6 days 7 daysROI Travellers NI Travellers HBSC SC 5-6 children HBSC all children203