Adolescent health, school health activities, community contexts, and health surveys in Sweden

School health activities have been very important in improving adolescent health in Sweden for almost 200 years. In the 1800s, emphasis was on medical services. Vaccination programs and medical examinations became the key issues. Deterioration of adolescent health in the 1960s changed the objectives of both school education and health services to health promotion. Important members of the community followed suit and involvement of the local community has remained a hallmark, even though the extent and direction varies. The subsequent period was characterized by substantial improvement in adolescent health behavior. The latter years of the 1980s and the 1990s saw deterioration of adolescent health behavior. Less emphasis on health promotion, decentralization of school health responsibility from physicians to administrators, and heavy savings directed toward schools were important mediators. Adolescents were also more engaged in international youth cultures with liberal practices, such as drug use. Community surveys of adolescent health behaviors have proven to be important in mobilizing broad local involvement in adolescent health promotion. The lesson learned is that health promotion has to involve as many community members as possible. Coordinating resources and having unified objectives is cost efficient (C) Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2003.