Health communication with parents and teachers and unhealthy behaviours in 15- to 16-year-old Swedes

ABSTRACTBackground: Unhealthy behaviours during adolescence constitute a major risk for numerous diseases in adulthood.Aim: To explore the associations between multiple unhealthy behaviours in adolescents and health behaviour information communicated by their parents and teachers, how much the adolescents cared about this information and whether adolescents went to schools with an annual health-themed week or not.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a self-reported questionnaire was delivered to pupils aged 15 and 16 (n = 492). The results were analysed using Poisson regression.Results: The number of unhealthy behaviours was lower in adolescents whose parents encouraged them to adopt healthy behaviours. Adolescents at schools with an annual health-themed week reported more unhealthy behaviours than other adolescents. In addition, attendance at such schools did not compensate for a lack of health behaviour information communicated by parents. Caring about health behaviour information communicated by par...