Weight satisfaction and self-esteem among teenagers in Helsinki, Moscow and Tallinn.

OBJECTIVE: Information on weight satisfaction in Eastern Europe is limited. This study compares relative weight, weight satisfaction and self-esteem of teenagers living in two post-Soviet capitals, Moscow and Tallinn, and a western capital Helsinki. METHOD: Classroom surveys including data about weight and height, weight satisfaction and self-4 esteem among 15-18-year-old girls (n = 911) and boys (n = 650) collected in 1994-95. RESULTS: Body mass index and self-esteem were highest in Helsinki. Nevertheless, feelings of over-weight were most common among Tallinn girls and feelings of over- and underweight among Muscovite girls. Boys were mostly satisfied with their current weight with no differences between cities. Low self-esteem was associated with feelings of overweight among girls and underweight among boys. DISCUSSION: Somewhat unexpectedly, girls grown in non-western cultures were more dissatisfied with their weight than girls in Helsinki. These findings may partly be attributable to rapid economic and cultural transformations that were occurring in these countries during the study period.

Health-related lifestyles and alienation in Moscow and Helsinki.

Health-related lifestyles (smoking, drinking alcohol, exercise and diet) and feelings of alienation (powerlessness and hopelessness) of the citizens of Helsinki and Moscow are examined and discussed in a framework of life chances and life choices. The data were collected by a postal survey of 18-64 yr old citizens of Helsinki (N = 824) and Moscow (N = 545) in 1991. Almost all respondents in both cities used alcohol, but heavy drinking was more frequently reported in Helsinki. Muscovite men were smokers more often and Muscovite women less often than their counterparts in Helsinki. Nearly half of the Muscovites, but less than one-fifth of the Helsinki respondents considered their diet unhealthy or of poor quality. Regular exercise was much more common among the Finns compared to the Muscovites. The sex difference in health-related lifestyles was wider in Moscow than in Helsinki, especially concerning health-damaging behaviour. Feelings of alienation were more pronounced in Moscow. In both cities alienation was more clearly associated with socioeconomic life chance factors than with lifestyle factors. In Helsinki feelings of alienation had stronger associations both with health and health related lifestyles, which possibly points to a conventional stratification effect of a market-based class society. In Moscow, which represents a more traditional community, alienation seemed to be part of a widely felt general discontent. Health was a highly salient value in both cities, especially among women. In Helsinki a high valuation of health was connected with less smoking, more exercise and a healthier diet. Valuing health did not seem to emerge as a distinct healthy lifestyle in Moscow where behavioural choices were limited by many material constraints.

Anxiety about environmental hazards among teenagers in Helsinki, Moscow and Tallinn.

Comparative research of environmental attitudes has concentrated on adults of Western countries, whereas knowledge of environmental consciousness of East European people is modest. This article compares anxiety that teenagers in Helsinki, Moscow and Tallinn express about environmental hazards and their health effects. The data (Helsinki, N = 1396; Moscow, N = 618; Tallinn, N = 1268) were collected in schools by questionnaires from pupils between 13 and 18 years in 1994-1995. Air pollution, water pollution and survival of plant and animal species were considered most worrying environmental threats in every city. Environmental concern was usually highest in Moscow, but the effects of pollution on an individual's health worried Estonian teenagers most. The worry was most consistent in Moscow, where sex, class level or opinion of the state of one's own living environment did not usually have an effect on attitudes. Finnish girls and pupils in higher school classes were environmentally more conscious than boys or younger teenagers. In Tallinn, the sex and age differences in worry were smaller. Environmental worry seemed to have connections to a general sense of responsibility and risk behaviour such as heavy drinking and smoking. For all sites those pupils who often throw empty packages onto the street or into the nature expressed lower environmental concern than their more responsible peers. The differences of worry between the cities were difficult to interpret, but the greater total concern of young Muscovites may be part of their general social anxiety, which is associated with the instability of the Russian society.

Social patterning of ill health in Helsinki and Moscow: results from a comparative survey in 1991.

Social inequalities in health are widely documented in the western countries including Finland, but research on Russia has so far been scarce. This article compares self-reported ill health of men and women and its social patterning in Helsinki and Moscow on the basis of a survey. The data (Helsinki N = 824, Moscow N = 545) were collected by mailed questionnaires in 1991. The Muscovites fared more poorly on perceived and psychological health, but the differences in self-reported morbidity (prevalence of chronic illnesses) between the cities were quite small. The sex differentials were greater in Moscow and Muscovite women had the poorest health of all. Education, family income and occupation had the most consistent associations with perceived health and morbidity among Helsinki women and the weakest among Muscovite women. With few exceptions, men of both cities fell between these groups. The differences in health between the cities were smaller in groups with low education. Thus, the role of education as a protective resource was more pronounced in Helsinki, and more notably among women. The possibility of a different impact of social stratification on health in a transitional socialist society compared to a western market economy is discussed.