Importance of physical health and health-behaviors in adolescence for risk of dropout from secondary education in young adulthood: an 8-year prospective study.

• Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health
• Main Authors: Svansdottir, Erla, Arngrimsson, Sigurbjorn A, Sveinsson, Thorarinn, Johannsson, Erlingur
• Other Authors: 1 Univ Iceland, Sch Educ, IS-105 Reykjavik, Iceland 2 Univ Iceland, Ctr Sport & Hlth Sci, IS-840 Laugarvatn, Iceland 3 Univ Iceland, Sch Hlth Sci, Res Ctr Movement Sci, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland 4 Landspitali Univ Hosp, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central Ltd 2015
• Subjects: Heilsufar; Unglingavandamál; Brottfall úr skóla; Health Status; Health Behavior; Adolescent; Student Dropouts; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2336/592787; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-015-0272-x

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access. Education and health constitute two interlinked assets that are highly important to individuals. In Iceland, prevalence of dropout from secondary education poses a considerable problem. This 8-year prospective study assesses to what extent poor physical health and negative health-behaviors of Icelandic adolescents predict increased odds of dropout from secondary education. The sample included n = 201 Icelandic children who participated at age 15 (baseline) and again at age 23 (follow-up). Data included objective measurements of physical health and questionnaires assessing health-behaviors, education status, parental education, neighborhood characteristics, self-esteem, and depression. Independent t-tests and chi-square were used to assess differences in physical health and health-behaviors at follow-up stratified by education status. Ordinal regression models were conducted to assess whether physical health and health-behaviors at age 15 predicted increased odds of dropout from secondary education at age 23, independent of gender, parental education and psychological factors. At age 23, 78 % of girls and 71 % of boys had completed a secondary education. Completion of a secondary education was associated with significant health benefits, especially among women. Women without a secondary education had lower fitness, more somatic complaints, higher diastolic blood pressure, less sports participation, and poorer sleep, whilst men without a secondary education watched more television. In logistic regression models somatic complaints during adolescence were associated with 1.09 (95 % CI: 1.02-1.18) higher odds of dropout from secondary education in young adulthood, independent of covariates. Health-behaviors associated with higher dropout odds included smoking (3.67, 95 % CI: 1.50-9.00), alcohol drinking (2.57, ...