Child and adolescent health – Resources and potential of the international ‘Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC)’ study

Abstract

The initiation of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in 1982 by researchers from Finland, Norway, and England in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) Europe laid the foundation for one of the largest studies on child and adolescent health worldwide.

Since the foundation of the study, the international HBSC network has published over 1,300 publications and cooperated at international level with key stakeholders in child and adolescent health, such as the WHO and UNICEF.

The lessons learned in recent years show that we should regularly examine what adolescents need to grow up healthy and which challenges require special consideration. Regular monitoring of child and adolescent health using complementary studies is essential. The HBSC study sees it as their responsibility to contribute the necessary information in order to give children and adolescents a voice.