In addition to its programme of competitively awarded seed grants, SCPHRP commissioned seven needs-based projects during 2008 ’ 2012, with a focus on the development of improved data-systems for sensitive population-level monitoring of overall changes in Scottish health status, and trends and patterns in health inequalities, particularly by socio-economic status (SES).
Following on from the analyses on the West of Scotland data, in collaboration with Winfried Van der Sluijs of the Child and Adolescent Health Research Unit, Collaboration staff (SCPHRP lead, Caroline Jackson) have explored the clustering of risk behaviours among young adolescents was explored using data from the HBSC Survey. This project focused on analysis of the relationship between each of alcohol use, smoking and cannabis use with early sexual initiation among 15 year-olds, and examination of how these relationships differed between males and females, and over time, through the inclusion of surveys carried out in 1996 through to 2006. The analyses revealed similar findings to those observed in preliminary analyses of the West of Scotland data, with similar differences between males and females observed (in terms of the strength of association between substance use and early sexual initiation). Interestingly the strength of the observed association between substance use and early sexual initiation did not change very much between 1996 and 2006.
