[Trends in subjective health and well-being of children and adolescents in Germany: results of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study 2002 to 2010].

The monitoring of health through the analysis of trends provides important information on the long-term development of key outcome parameters for health. Currently, Germany does not have any reliable data on trends in the health situation of young people.The presented results are based on the German trend data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study. Data were analysed for a representative sample of 11-, 13- and 15-year-old school children from 2002 (N=5 650), 2006 (N=7 274) and 2010 (N=5 005). First, a comparison between German and international HBSC trend data was conducted for subjective health, life satisfaction and health complaints in 2002, 2006 and 2010. Next, a logistic regression was calculated to further describe the trends for these outcomes in the German data set.Overall, children and adolescents in Germany report good health. The comparison with the international data further supports this finding. Detailed analyses of trends showed that the health level generally improved between 2002 and 2010 for German children. In particular, better subjective health and lower rates of multiple recurrent health complaints were reported. Irrespective of the survey year, girls and older adolescents reported the highest level of health impairment.Trend analyses contribute towards health politics not only by providing information on the health situation across time, but also by pointing out the long-term effects of measures at the macro level (such as national health programmes, interventions) on children's health.