Current News...

11 November 2009 | HBSC report published
Young People’s Health in Great Britain and Ireland

GB & Ireland HBSC Report The Young People’s Health in Great Britain and Ireland Report is published today. 

The report is produced by CAHRU with funding from NHS Health Scotland and in cooperation with its counterparts in England, Ireland and Wales.  It shows findings from the International HBSC study providing an interesting picture on how Great Britain and Ireland are doing as a whole as well as comparing the individual countries with one another.

Investigating various health issues and behaviours in young people as well as their social environment this report gives a new look at the 2006 HBSC findings.  The report is considered to complement previous HBSC publications such as the “HBSC Scotland National Report” and the “Inequalities in Young people’s Health” report.

For more information, please contact Cara Zanotti, cara.zanotti@ed.ac.uk Tel +44 (0)131 651 6557

3 November 2009 | CAHRU to give presentation at Children in Scotland Annual Conference

The 2009 Children in Scotland Annual Conference "Life in the fast lane: the road to better outcomes for children and young people" takes place 5-6 November. Jo Kirby, Research Associate at CAHRU, will give a presentation 'How healthy are Scotland's children? A European overview' on 6 November. The presentation will use findings from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Study. Further information is available from the conference website.

27 October 2009 | Increasing physical activity for health in adolescent girls
CAHRU to give presentation at network event

Jo Kirby, Research Associate at CAHRU, has been invited to give a presentation at a network event on 30 October organised by the Teenactive research group at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. The theme of the event is 'Increasing physical activity for health in adolescent girls'. This is the second event for the network that was established to increase the knowledge exchange between interested partners on the topic of increasing physical activity for health in adolescent girls. The network is part of a knowledge exchange initiative funded by the Scottish Funding Council. Jo will present the results from her recent literature review titled 'The importance of role models in getting girls more active'.

23 October 2009 | CAHRU Director invited to present at IAAH World Congress in Kuala Lumpur

Professor Candace Currie, Director of the Child and Adolescent Health Research Unit and elected International Coordinator of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children WHO Collaborative Cross-National Study (HBSC), has been invited to present at the 9th World Congress of the International Association for Adolescent Health 28-30 October in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The main theme of the conference is "Private lives, public issues: global perspectives on adolescent sexual health".

Candace will present her paper 'Is variation between countries in age at menarche of girls explained by Body Mass Index?' at the Puberty Symposium on the opening day of the conference. She will give a further presentation titled ' Informing investment in adolescent health, the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Study' at the closing plenary on 30 October. Both papers draw on findings from the HBSC study. Further information, including the full programme, is available on the Congress website:

12 October 2009 | New HBSC publication

HBSC Briefing paper 16 “Oral Health among young people in Scotland” is out. The paper reports a steady increase in the proportion of children brushing their teeth at least twice daily between 1990 and 2006, with girls more likely than boys to report brushing their teeth at least twice a day. Young people who live in high affluence families have a higher frequency of twice daily tooth brushing than those living in low affluence families. Furthermore, among boys, living with both parents is associated with a higher frequency of at least twice daily tooth brushing. Young people consuming sugary drinks are less likely to clean their teeth twice a day, while those with a diet which includes daily fruit and vegetables are more likely to clean their teeth at least twice a day. The combined effect of not brushing teeth twice a day and consuming sugary drinks regularly is likely to result in poor oral health. Oral health initiatives should target children who are at particularly high risk of oral diseases.

You can download a copy below. This and other briefing papers on a range of topics, including mental health, bullying, and physical activity are also available in our HBSC publications section.

HBSC Briefing Paper 16 HBSC Briefing Paper 16: Oral health among young people in Scotland
Kirby J, Akhtar P, Levin K and Currie C
[PDF 159KB]

8 October 2009 | New member of staff at HBSC International Coordinating Centre

Ashley Theunissen has joined the team at the International Coordinating Centre to assist the International Coordinator Candace Currie in the acting role of Assistant International Coordinator for a period of six months.

Ashley has been living and working in the UK for over seven years. She holds degrees in International Relations and Law and for the last three years, has been employed as a Legal Research Associate with Edinburgh University Law School on the Common Principles of European Contract Law (CoPECL) project. This Framework 6 European project involved the harmonisation of contract laws across the European Union. Within the CoPECL network, she worked with hundreds of legal scholars, academics and politicians across Europe conducting independent and collaborative legal research/drafting. In addition to her above experience, Ashley has worked on several socio-legal studies and surveys and has extensive editing and project management experience. She will be working in her interim role for the HBSC for the next six months and looks forward to meeting and collaborating with the HBSC team.

23 September 2009 | CAHRU Director presents at the conference 'Beyond mortality: future perspectives in adolescent health'

This conference was held at the Institute of Child Health, London, on 10-11 September 2009. The meeting was jointly sponsored by the Institute of Child Health (Dr Russell Viner) and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), Melbourne, Australia (Professor George Patton).

40 academics and policy makers from 6 continents, including representatives of the World Health Organisation and UNFPA, and representatives of The Lancet, met to debate how to best take forward a global agenda in improving adolescent health. Professor Candace Currie, CAHRU Director & HBSC International Coordinator, gave an invited presentation titled 'Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Study: Scope, Approach and Potential'. Candace's presentation is available to download below.

23 September 2009 | Youth Friendly Health Policies and Services meeting
CAHRU Director gives invited presentation

Candace Currie, CAHRU Director & HBSC International Coordinator, gave an invited presentation to this meeting held 21-23 September 2009 in Edinburgh. The title of the presentation was 'The health and socio-cultural issues affecting adolescents in the European Region'. Candace's presentation and the full meeting programme are available to download below.