Perception of neighbourhood and school environment and its relation with health risk behaviours in Pragues teenagers

A youths’ neighborhood can play an important role in their physical, health, and emotional development. Positive and healthy neighborhoods, communities and schools provide a background for healthy social relationships. The prevalence of risk behavior in Czech youth such as smoking, drug and alcohol use is highest in Europe.

This paper analyses differences in health risk behavior (HRB) in youth residents within different types of Prague’s neighborhoods and also in relation to the school´s physical environment. We use the data collected through an on-line survey among elementary school students aged between 15-16y, which was administered in selected schools in Prague. The schools were selected according to their neighborhood type so that they represented different built environments, such as housing estates, new family houses of the suburbia, old city houses, row houses etc.

Results show, that less than 70 % of students did not engage in multiple health-risk behavior, 14,6% reported one risk, 12,2% two risks and 6,1% full multiple health-risk behavior.  The best situation is at block of flats, the worst situation at family houses. Health risk behaviors appear to be influenced by built environment as well, however with different intensity. The strongest relation was found between the negatively perceived school environment and the use of marijuana and binge drinking, the relation with smoking is much weaker.

Our results suggest that perceptions of problems in neighborhood are associated with HRB among Prague´s teenage residents. This fact makes this issue of a serious importance also from the policies point of view.