Settlement size and fertility in the Nordic countries.

While the variation in childbearing patterns across countries and between socio-economic groups within a country has been studied in detail, less is known about the differences in fertility patterns across settlements within a country. Using aggregate and individual-level register data, we examine fertility variation across settlements in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. We observe a significant variation in fertility level by settlement size in all four of these Nordic countries - the larger the settlement, the lower the fertility.

Gendering family composition: sex preferences for children and childbearing behavior in the Nordic countries.

It has been argued that a society's gender system may influence parents' sex preferences for children. If this is true, one should expect to find no evidence of such preferences in countries with a high level of gender equality. In this article, we exploit data from population registers from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden to examine continuities and changes in parental sex preferences in the Nordic countries during the past three to four decades.

The role of school context in the increase in young people's health complaints in Finland.

According to biological indicators trends in young people's health appear favourable, but the psychosocial aspects suggest a different pattern. We studied the differences across schools in common health complaints and in three groups of factors behind them: pupils' individual characteristics, family related factors and school-related factors. Multilevel linear regression models were used to analyse repeated cross-sectional data from Finnish 8th and 9th graders (14- and 15-year-olds, n=60347) in 109 schools that were surveyed in 1996, 1998 and 2000.

Health behaviours and health in adolescence as predictors of educational level in adulthood: a follow-up study from Finland.

A longitudinal study design is used to find out whether health and health behaviours at age 12-16 predict educational level in early adulthood. The purpose is to study direct (based on health) and indirect (based on health behaviours) health-related selection mechanisms in adolescence. These mechanisms contribute to the allocation of people into various educational positions and thus to the creation of socio-economic health differences in adulthood.

Teenage pregnancies and abortions in Finland in the 1990s.

Aims: This study analyses trends and regional variation in teenage pregnancy, abortion, and fertility rates in Finland in the 1990s, by single-year age group.

Methods: Individual-level data from Finnish abortion and birth registers maintained by the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) were used to calculate the rates and the abortion ratio. The abortion ratio was also calculated using conception as the time reference.

Oral hygiene instructions and dietary sugar advice received by adolescents in 1989 and 1997.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to find out how commonly adolescents receive oral hygiene instructions and dietary sugar advice in the Finnish public oral health care system and whether there have been any changes between 1989 and 1997.

Methods: The data were collected as part of a nationwide research program, the Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey. Since 1977, a questionnaire has been sent every second year to a representative sample of 12-, 14-, 16- and 18-year-old Finns eligible for free comprehensive oral health care.