ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH AND MEDICINE USE IN SEVEN COUNTRIES

Adolescent mental health has been related to a variety of physical
health problems and adolescents can have considerable indepen-
dence in their use of medicines to treat acute health problems. The
relationship between adolescent mental health and medicine use. (MU) has not received sufficient attention. The present analyses
examine relationships of adolescent mental health and MU and
whether mental health contributes to MU beyond the effect of
experiencing symptoms of those health problems. Self-reported
mental health, MU for four common health problems (headache,
stomachache, difficulties sleeping, and nervousness) and symp-
toms for common health problems were assessed in a nationally-
representative sample of 7,611 U.S. students in grades 6 through
10 and in 26,111 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old students in six
countries participating in the Health Behavior in School-Aged
Children study: Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland,
Macedonia, and Scotland. A brief measure of depression was
included in the US HBSC survey and a broader mental health
index (KIDSCREEN) was included in the surveys of the six
European nations. In US adolescents, depression predicted MU for
each of the four health problems but when both depression and
symptoms were in the regression models depression added to the
prediction for difficulties sleeping (p=.0071) and nervousness
(p<.0001) only. These findings were replicated in the European
sample; using hierarchical linear modeling, there no significant
effects due to country. MU for each of the four health problems
was predicted by mental health; however, MU for headache and
stomachache were no longer significant when symptoms were
added to the models. Adolescents with poorer mental/psycholog-
ical health are more likely to experience symptoms of common
health problems and to take m
edicine for these problems.
However, self-reported symptoms may partially mediate the
relationship between adolescent mental health and MU.