Sexual orientation and health and well-being: Population based youth studies in Iceland

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to compare self-assessed school health and well-being of three different sexual orientation groups within the 2010 and 2014 populations of Year 10 in Iceland. Sexual orientation was classified according to romantic and/or sexual attraction and/or sexual activity and are identified as: (a) unknown, (b) heterosexual, and, (c) non-heterosexual. Data were derived from two sets of survey collections (2010 and 2014) from the Icelandic part of the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC), initiated by the World Health organization (WHO) ... HBSC surveys are administered every fourth year, and participation rate in Iceland for both these implementations were between 80 and 90% of the whole cohurts, of which 91% boys and 94% girls identified as hetersexual in 2010 and 90% of boys and 89% of girls identified as heterosexual in 2014. Health and well being was measured on both occoations through answers to eight health aspects (headache, stomack ache, back ache, sadness, irritability, nervousness, sleeping difficulties, dizzyness), rated according to frequency on a 5 point Likert scale. Results from both populations will be discussed and further information on follow up questions, administered 2014 only, comprising use of medication, also rated according to frequency.