Social inequalities in mental health: Understanding variations across countries and finding policy solutions to improve population health

身体活动和食物选择等健康行为对疾病和预期寿命等整个生命过程中的健康结果有很大影响。在这方面，青春期是一个重要的过渡时期，在此期间形成健康行为模式。最重要的健康行为之一，特别是在青少年时期，是身体活动。青少年每天应进行60分钟的中等至高强度身体活动（MVPA）。然而，根据世界卫生组织（WHO）关于学龄儿童健康行为的调查（HBSC）。世卫组织欧洲区域只有11%的15岁女孩和21%的15岁男孩遵守这些准则。这些数据还表明，性别是青少年体育活动的一个重要决定因素。女孩比男孩更少运动，这种差异在欧洲国家是一致的，并持续到成年生活。然而，研究缺乏对这种身体活动性别差异的原因和后果的清晰认识。特别是，已经确定了三个主要的研究差距，并将通过本博士研究进行研究：(1)调查在不同国家背景下，哪些社会和经济水平因素会影响身体活动中的性别差距，(2)探索骑自行车上学的决定因素，作为性别差距的具体行为表现，(3)确定身体活动中的性别差距如何与心理健康结果相关联。这三个主题将在单独的研究中讨论。第一项研究将利用青少年健康行为的国际数据集，并使用多层次回归模型来调查性别差距随着时间的推移而发展，并探索欧洲各国之间的差异。第二项研究将利用联合王国的调查数据，调查影响青春期女孩比男孩更不可能骑自行车上学的环境和社会心理因素。第三项研究将利用世卫组织学龄儿童健康行为数据集（HBSC）调查运动较少的女孩与她们更容易患心理健康状况之间的联系。由于体育活动对肥胖和精神健康状况具有保护作用，这两种疾病在欧洲各地都呈上升趋势，因此建议的研究对研究和政策制定者都具有重要意义。因此，研究结果将为希望增加年轻人体育活动的从业人员提供信息，例如通过鼓励骑自行车上学的学校卫生政策和干预措施。

Health behaviours such as physical activity and food choices have a large influence on health outcomes through the life course such as diseases and life expectancy. In this regard, adolescence is an important transition time, during which patterns of health behaviours are established. One of the most important health behaviours - particularly during adolescence - is physical activity.Adolescents should engage in 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) every day. However, according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) survey on Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC).Only 11% of 15-year old girls and 21% of 15-year old boys in the WHO European region fulfil these guidelines. This data also shows that gender is a strong determinant of physical activity in adolescence. Girls are less physically active than boys are - a difference that is consistent across European countries and that persists into adult life. However, research lacks a clear understanding of the causes and consequences of this gender gap in physical activity.In particular, three main research gaps have been identified and will be studied by this DPhil research: (1) Investigating which social and economic level factors affect the gender gap in physical activity in different country contexts,(2) Exploring the determinants of cycling to school as concrete behavioural manifestation of the gender gap, (3) Establishing how the gender gap in physical activity is associated with mental health outcomes. All three themes will to be addressed in separate research studies. The first study will draw on international datasets of adolescents' health behaviour and use multilevel regression modelling to investigate the development of the gender gap over time and explore country-level differences across Europe. The second study will draw on survey data from the United Kingdom to investigate the environmental and socio-psychological factors, which influence that adolescent girls are less likely to cycle to school than boys are. The third study will investigate the link between girls being less physically active and their higher susceptibility to mental health conditions using the WHO dataset on Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC).As physical activity has a protective function for obesity and mental health conditions, which are on the rise all around Europe, the suggested research has important implications for research and policy makers alike. The results of the research shall therefore inform practitioners who wish to increase young people's physical activity, for example through school health policies and interventions that encourage cycling to school.