Ethnicity, socio-economic status and self-harm in Swedish youth : a national cohort study.

• BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown an elevated risk for self-harm in adolescents from ethnic minorities. However, potential contributions to this risk from socio-economic factors have rarely been addressed. The main aim of this article was to investigate any such effects. METHOD: A national cohort of 1009 157 children born during 1973-1982 was followed prospectively from 1991 to 2002 in Swedish national registers. Multivariate Cox analyses of proportional hazards were used to estimate the relative risk of hospital admission for self-harm. Parental country/region of birth was used as proxy for ethnicity. RESULTS: Youth with two parents born outside Sweden (except those from Southern Europe) had higher age- and gender-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of self-harm than the majority population (HR 1.6-2.3). The HRs decreased for all immigrant groups when socio-economic factors were accounted for but remained significantly higher for immigrants from Finland and Western countries and for youth with one Swedish-born and one foreign-born parent. CONCLUSIONS: Socio-economic factors explain much of the variation by parental country of birth of hospital admissions for self-harm in youth in Sweden.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Psykiatri (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Psychiatry (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Adolescents

ethnicity

self-harm behaviour

socio-economic status

young adults

MEDICINE

MEDICIN

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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