El estado de salud de los jóvenes uruguayos

This paper is a study of the health of young people in Uruguay. The empirical work is based on the “Health and Social Networks” survey carried out by the Department of Economics of the Social Sciences Faculty, in agreement with the National Youth Institute, in 2004. Using an ordered probit, the probability of having very good, good, or bad health status is estimated, controlled by socio-economic factors and risk-linked behavior. It is found that the probability of having better health status depends positively on education, physical activity, not being undernourished, not smoking, living in small cities, having human capital and living in a household with less relative privation. In reference to health status and the economic status of the family, the first fifteen years of life appears as positively determining it. In order to identify groups at risk, several simulations are done, predicting probabilities for several groups such as: behavior that causes a serious health risk (smoking, drinking alcohol, not doing physical excursive, being undernourished or obese), people with low socio-economic status (living in a household with high relative privation, economic problems in the first fifteen years of life, falling behind in the education system and not having human capital), and both at the same time. It has been found that those with risk behavior have a 14 per cent probability of having very good health status (as against the average, which is 24 per cent), the figure for those with low socio-economic status is 4 per cent, and the figure for those with both characteristics just 2 per cent.