Social Conditionality of Adolescent Health in a Temporary Aspect

Abstract

The article touches upon the problem of improving adolescent health. Its current state does not meet the needs of the society in the substantial health improvement of this social group. The results of two “Adolescent health and the environment” studies (repeated cohort studies, 1996 and 2017) have served as the information base for the article. Their special feature is a common sample object (adolescents aged 13–16 years old), single program, identical samples, geographically close regions and time interval (20 years). The proposed approach is aimed at searching links between sociological parameters of health, such as self-assessment of health, health awareness, health consciousness, motives for that and health behavior, and the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. According to the study, changes in the attitudes and values with regard to health influence the increased attention to health and self-assessment of health. Despite the continuous radical changes in the society’s life, the psychosocial state of adolescent is characterized by certain stability of key lifestyle parameters in terms of time. As for their positive and negative attitudinal and behavioral changes, they are the result of the state social policy in the field of health. Active promotion of healthy lifestyle in recent decades has transformed into a change in attitudes related to smoking and motives for health care. Less attention to the environmental problems at the state level has led to less concern about these issues among young people. While disease incidence among adolescents is characterized by negative trends, positive experience of the social policy in the sphere of health is the basis for positive changes in this field. The introduction of health lessons for schoolchildren to the educational standard could be the influential component. This would provide a long-term effect of health promotion in Russia.