Bullying behaviour in schools, socioeconomic position and psychiatric morbidity: a cross-sectional study in late adolescents in Greece

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bullying is quite prevalent in the school setting and has been associated with the socioeconomic position and psychiatric morbidity of the pupils. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between bullying and socioeconomic status in a sample of Greek adolescents and to examine whether this is confounded by the presence of psychiatric morbidity, including sub-threshold forms of illness.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>5,614 adolescents aged 16-18 years old and attending 25 senior high schools were screened and a stratified random sample of 2,427 were selected for a detailed interview. Psychiatric morbidity was assessed with a fully structured psychiatric interview, the revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R), while bullying was assessed with the revised Olweus bully/victim questionnaire. The following socio-economic variables were assessed: parental educational level and employment status, financial difficulties of the family and adolescents' school performance. The associations were investigated using multinomial logit models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>26.4% of the pupils were involved in bullying-related behaviours at least once monthly either as victims, perpetrators or both, while more frequent involvement (at least once weekly) was reported by 4.1%. Psychiatric morbidity was associated with all types of bullying-related behaviours. No socioeconomic associations were reported for victimization. A lower school performance and unemployment of the father were significantly more likely among perpetrators, while economic inactivity of the mother was more likely in pupils who were both victims and perpetrators. These results were largely confirmed when we focused on high frequency behaviours only. In addition, being overweight increased the risk of frequent victimization.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The prevalence of bullying among Greek pupils is substantial. Perpetration was associated with some dimensions of adolescents' socioeconomic status, while victimization showed no socioeconomic associations. Our findings may add to the understanding of possible risk factors for bullying behaviours in adolescence.</p

Validity of a hospital-based obstetric register using medical records as reference

Carina Sj&ouml;berg Brixval,1 Lau Caspar Thygesen,1 Nanna Roed Johansen,2 Christina R&oslash;rbye,3 Tom Weber,3 Pernille Due,1 Vibeke Koushede1 1National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; 3Copenhagen University Hospital, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark Background: Data from hospital-based registers and medical records offer valuable sources of information for clinical and epidemiological research purposes. However, conducting high-quality epidemiological research requires valid and complete data sources. Objective: To assess completeness and validity of a hospital-based clinical register &ndash; the Obstetric Database &ndash; using a national register and medical records as references. Methods: We assessed completeness of a hospital-based clinical register &ndash; the Obstetric Database &ndash; by linking data from all women registered in the Obstetric Database as having given birth in 2013 to the National Patient Register with coverage of all births in 2013. Validity of eleven selected indicators from the Obstetric Database was assessed using medical records as a golden standard. Using a random sample of 250 medical records, we calculated proportion of agreement, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for each indicator. Two assessors independently reviewed medical records and inter-rater reliability was calculated as proportion of agreement and Cohen&#39;s &kappa; coefficient. Results: We found 100% completeness of the Obstetric Database when compared to the Danish National Patient Register. Except for one delivery all 6,717 deliveries were present in both registers. Proportion of agreement between the Obstetric Database and medical records ranged from 91.1% to 99.6% for the eleven indicators. The validity measures ranged from 0.70 to 1.00 indicating high validity of the Obstetric Database. &kappa; coefficients from the inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.71 to 1.00. Conclusion: Completeness and validity of the Obstetric Database were found acceptable when using the National Patient Register and medical records as golden standards. The Obstetric Database therefore offers a valuable source for examining clinical, administrative, and research questions. Keywords: obstetric register, register-based, hospital register, validity, completenes