Pa. Michaud et al., HEALTH SURVEY OF ADOLESCENTS AGED 15-20 I N FRENCH-SPEAKING SWITZERLAND, Schweizerische medizinische Wochenschrift, 123(40), 1993, pp. 1883-1895
During the year 1992, under the auspices of the Federal Office for Pub
lic Health, the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine of Lausan
ne conducted a survey on the health and life-style of a representative
sample of adolescents aged 15 to 20 years from the French speaking pa
rt of Switzerland. The main objective of the study was to explore adol
escent health attitudes and behavior as well as health needs. After ex
clusion of non valid questionnaires (1.2%), 3324 subjects have been in
cluded in the analysis (females: 1477; males: 1847; apprentices: 59%;
students: 41%). The majority of the respondents feel in good health (f
emales: 87.5%; males: 94.3%), but a large proportion express needs in
various areas: stress, depression, love, professional future, nutritio
n etc. Comparisons with earlier surveys show that cannabis use has bec
ome more common (lifetime prevalence: females: 24.1%; males: 39.3%). T
he use of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin is not exceptional (li
fetime prevalence: 1-3%). By 18 years of age, the majority of responde
nts are sexually active (17 years: 49.0%; 18 years: 62.6%; 19 years: 7
2.0%). 76.6% of respondents have used contraception on their first coi
tus and thereafter. Girls exhibit a tendency towards more perceived he
alth problems and more use of health care structures, whereas boys exp
ress their problems in a more ''external'' way, i.e. violent behavior
(injuries, fighting, theft etc.). Differences between apprentices and
students are minimal, although apprentices tend to be more sexually ac
tive. The paper comments on the results in different areas such as hea
lth care, prevention and general setting.