Socioeconomic inequalities in the health of children and adolescents: A comparative study of the five Nordic countries

Background: Socioeconomic differences in health among adults exist in the Nordic countries as well as in all other countries where this has been examined. The present study examines whether such differences can also be found among children and adolescents, whether these differences vary between the Nordic countries and whether they can be found in all age groups of children and adolescents. Methods: Questionnaires on health, well-being and socioeconomic status (SES) were sent to parents of a random sample of children aged 2-17 years, equally distributed between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The indicators of reported ill health were having one or more chronic diseases, frequent moderate or severe symptoms and short stature. The socioeconomic variables were education and occupation of both parents and disposable family income. Logistic regression analysis was used to measure the association between health and SES. Results: Parents in lower socioeconomic groups in all countries reported more ill health for their children at all ages and their children more often belonged to the lowest decile in reported height. Sweden and Denmark on the whole showed larger inequalities than the other three countries, but the difference between countries was small and varied according to the indicators of ill health used. The size of the reported health inequalities did not vary with age: the differences were as marked among adolescents as among younger children. Conclusions: Substantial inequalities in health according to SES can be found in childhood and adolescence, even in well-developed welfare states.