Socio-demographic and economic factors of health and health behavior of children and adolescents

Abstract

Children’s health not only largely determines the health of the population at the current time but is also a key determinant of health and other aspects of life in adulthood. Understanding the factors that determine health in childhood can provide important information for the design of an effective state policy in the field of children’s health. The paper presents the results of a critical analysis and systematization of Russian and foreign scientific studies of the determinants of children's health and health-related behaviors. The literature review is based on contemporary publications in the fields of economics, sociology, medicine and public health. The results of scientific research indicate that the most important socio-economic determinants of children's health in developed countries are material well-being, living conditions, migration status, education and employment of parents, parental health, lifestyle and behavior of people around the child, and environmental factors. Among the demographic factors of child health, the demographic structure of the household and the gender of the child stand out. The results of Russian and foreign studies in the field of medicine and public health show that, despite the differences in national health systems, children from wealthier families tend to show better health compared to children from less wealthy families (social gradient in health). To the best of our knowledge, the number of studies of the health factors of Russian children and adolescents, based on nationally representative data, is very limited. Existing studies were carried out quite a long time ago, their methodology and results need to be updated. Literature review lays the theoretical and methodological foundations for conducting a modern econometric study of the health factors and health-related behavior of Russian children.

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