The Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Study 2018

This report presents data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey carried out in 2018 in the Republic of Ireland. This is the sixth time that data of this kind have been collected from young people across the Republic of Ireland; previous surveys were conducted in 2014, 2010, 2006, 2002 and 1998 (www.nuigalway.ie/hbsc).

HBSC is a cross-sectional research study conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe. The HBSC international survey runs on an academic four year cycle and in 2017/2018 there were 47 participating countries and regions (see www.hbsc.org). The overall study aims to gain new insight into and increase our understanding of young people’s health and wellbeing, health behaviours and their social context. As well as serving a monitoring and a knowledge-generating function, one of the key objectives of HBSC has been to inform policy and practice.

Cross-nationally, HBSC collects information on the key indicators of health behaviour and health outcomes as well as the context of health for young people. HBSC is a school-based survey with data collected through self-completion questionnaires administered by teachers in the classroom. The international HBSC survey instrument is a standard questionnaire developed by the international research network.