Mapping adolescent health and lifestyles in a multi-state country: methodological aspects and first results

Objectives: To explore the feasibility of a geographical analysis (mapping) of data from a national adolescent survey. Methods: Teenagers 15 to 19 years in high school or apprenticeship (N = 527 5 boys and 3993 girls) answered a self-administered anonymous questionnaire targeting health and lifestyles. Switzerland was divided in 14 subunits, e ach one including at least 400 subjects: large cantons were isolated by the mselves whereas smaller ones were aggregated taking into account common cul tural, geographical and health characteristics. To minimise the impact of s ample differences across the cantons, subsamples were weighted according to age, sex, and professional background, For each variable, the discretisati on of the values in five classes was performed using the threshold approach which maximises intergroup differences and minimises the intragroup differ ences, Results: The analysis suggests different patterns of distribution depending on the type of variable studied: substance use differs mostly between urba n and rural cantons, while mental health differs between French and German- speaking cantons. Conclusions: Whereas most available atlases are derived from population-bas ed data (i.e., mortality rates), this research demonstrates the feasibility of using self-reported data from school-based survey samples. The presenta tion of data on attractive maps provides a unique opportunity for generatin g hypotheses as to the causes of differences across cantons in a multi-ethn ic, multicultural country.