NATIONAL

HEALTH BEHAVIOUR IN SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN:
WHO COLLABORATIVE CROSS-NATIONAL STUDY (HBSC)
2014 SURVEY IN SCOTLAND NATIONAL REPORT
SELF-RATED HEALTH
HBSC Scotland asks young people to report their general health, which encompasses both physical and non-physical
aspects of health 2 .
In 2014, over a quarter of young people (26%) in Scotland report their health as ‘excellent’ (30% of boys and 23% of girls). A
further 56% describe their health as ‘good’, with 16% reporting ‘fair’ health. Only 2% describe their health as ‘poor’.
Excellent health is most likely to be reported at younger ages, with 36% of 11-year olds reporting this, compared to 18% of
15-year olds. There is no gender difference among 11-year olds, but among 13- and 15-year olds, boys are more likely than
girls to report excellent health (Figure 11.10).
There was little change in self-rated health between 2002 and 2010, however in 2014, both boys and girls are more likely
to report excellent health than in 2010 (Figure 11.11).
HEALTH COMPLAINTS
Young people were asked how often in the past six months they had suffered from a number of symptoms. Fifteen percent
(15%) report experiencing headaches, 11% dizziness, 9% stomachache and 10% backache more than weekly, while 17% feel
low, 24% are irritable, 20% are nervous and 23% have difficulty getting to sleep.
Overall, the likelihood of experiencing each of these symptoms increases with age (Figure 11.12). These age-related
differences are mostly driven by sharp increases for each symptom among older girls. For boys, the likelihood of experiencing
backache, low mood, irritability or nervousness increases with age, but to a lesser extent than seen for girls. The likelihood
of headaches, feeling dizzy, stomachaches and sleep difficulties does not change with age among boys.
Among 11-year olds, there only exists a gender difference for stomachaches (9% of girls versus 5% of boys experience this
complaint more than once a week). However, among 15-year olds there are substantial gender differences in the prevalence
of each of the health complaints, with girls approximately twice as likely as boys to experience each complaint more than
once a week at this age. At age 15, 30% of girls report at least weekly headaches compared to only 11% of boys; 21% of girls,
versus 9% of boys report at least weekly dizziness; 16% of girls versus 6% of boys report at least weekly stomachache; 21%
of girls versus 11% of boys report at least weekly backache; 40% of girls versus 23% of boys report at least weekly irritability;
38% of girls versus 16% of boys report at least weekly nervousness; 36% of girls versus 22% of boys report at least weekly
sleep difficulties; and 36% of girls compared to only 15% of boys report at least weekly low mood.
Having multiple health complaints is defined as having two or more symptoms more than once a week. Thirty-one percent
(31%) of young people report multiple health complaints. The proportion is greatest for 15-year olds (41%) and smallest for
11-year olds (22%) for both boys and girls.
The rise in multiple health complaints with age is much steeper for girls than boys, such that the gender gap increases with
age (Figure 11.13). Over half of 15-year old girls (54%) report multiple health complaints, compared to 29% of boys this age.
The proportion of boys reporting multiple health complaints has been subject to a small decline since 1994. Whilst girls
showed a steady decline between 1994 and 2006, there has been a subsequent increase, most substantially between 2010
(33%) and 2014 (39%). As such, the proportion of girls with multiple health complaints is now similar to that in 1994 and the
gender gap in multiple health complaints is at its widest in the past two decades (Figure 11.14).
MEDICINE USE
Thirteen and 15-year olds were asked about their use of medicine or tablets for: headache, stomachache, nervousness,
sleeping difficulties and ‘other’ symptoms. Fifty nine percent (59%) of young people had used medicine in the previous
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