Symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are common among adolescents and can lead to severe psychosocial impairment, yet there is a lack of a good quality scale to measure symptoms of generalized anxiety in young people. The 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) is a self-report scale used to measure GAD symptoms and has been validated in adult populations, but the measure's psychometric properties regarding adolescents are unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability, factorial validity, and construct validity of the GAD-7 in adolescents in a nationally representative sample from a general population. Our study was based on Finnish survey data on 111,171 adolescents aged 14-18 years. Our results show that the GAD-7 demonstrates good psychometric properties in adolescents. The internal consistency of the GAD-7 was good (Cronbach's α = 0.91) and the instrument's unidimensional factor structure was supported. The associations of GAD-7 sum scores with self-report measures of depression and social anxiety supported construct validity. The psychometric properties of the GAD-7 in this sample of adolescents were similar to those reported among adults. However, studies in which diagnostic interviews are performed are needed to demonstrate the diagnostic efficacy of the measure in this age group.

In Finland, the Finnish Association for Swimming Instruction and Life Saving (SUH) and Statistics Finland (SF) both provide nationwide data on unintentional drowning. The SUH database relies on rapid reporting from a newspaper clipping service and additional local police information, whereas the SF database relies on the later release of the death certificate information, which is based on extensive medico-legal investigation. The aim of the study was to explore the main differences between the SUH and SF databases for drowning and to evaluate the capacity of the former to characterize drowning events in Finland from 1998 to 2000. Computerized files of death certificates tabulated by SF were linked with the SUH database by deterministic methods. SF and SUH databases allowed the identification of 704 and 567 unintentional drownings, respectively, giving an unintentional drowning rate of 4.5 and 3.6/100?000 per year. Of the 704 drownings described by SF, 418 (59.4%) were also found in the SUH database. The SUH database markedly underreported drowning fatalities in certain settings, such as bath, ditch and swimming pool drownings; fall- and land-traffic-related drownings; and drownings occurring in South Finland. The narrative text of SUH drownings contributed limited information to characterize the drowning events. It was concluded that the newspaper-based SUH data provide more timely data on individual drownings but are not representative of all drownings. Conversely, the SF vital statistics data are more accurate but may take up to 2 years to become available. Both SUH and SF data provide little detailed information on drowning events. A multidisciplinary national surveillance system for drowning is necessary to provide more accurate and timely drowning data, analyse risk factors and design follow-up studies for developing and monitoring prevention strategies.

The main purpose of this study was to explore how the number of home, sports, and other leisure time injuries among young people aged 15 - 25 years has developed in Finland in 1988 - 2003. In 1988, 2559 people aged 15 - 25 years were interviewed by Statistics Finland. In 1993, 1997 and 2003 those amounts were 751, 1638 and 1382. The subjects were asked in a telephone interview to report the injuries in which they had been involved during the previous 12 months. The crude injury incidence in 2003 was 364 per 1000 person years in men and 246 in women. The total number of injuries increased 49 % between the years 1988 and 2003. The number of sports injuries increased the most. The increase was greater among men than women, and the injury rate was higher among both men and women aged 15 - 19 years than those aged 20 - 25 years. More research is needed on whether and how exercise and time at home have changed and become riskier among young people. It is also essential to find out which prevention methods are the most effective among young people and implement these measures in a well-planned and targeted manner.

BackgroundOfficial Statistics of Finland (OSF) are a wide collection of statistics describing society’s development and state and must have common quality criteria, which are compatible with European Statistical System quality criteria. However, there is no OSF statistics focused solely on injuries, nor a database on the subject.The National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) produces information on Finland’s injury statistics. For monitoring regional injury situation, THL produces national injury reports, published since 2009, divided into rescue regions and health care districts. National injury reports are released once a year and are intended to improve regional and local safety planning.MethodsData is collected from the THL Injury Database which contains all deaths and hospital care periods for injuries and external causes of mortality from 1996 to 2013 (ICD-10 codes S00-T983 and V00-Y98). THL Injury Database’s data originates from Finland’s National Hospital Discharge register and Statistics Finland’s Causes of Death register.Standardised mortality/morbidity rate based on indirect age- and gender standardisation is used for comparing regional accidental injury deaths, hospital care periods, number of patients and hospital care days.ResultsInjuries leading to hospital care periods happens more often in Northern and Eastern Finland than in Southern and Western Finland. Most injuries occur in leisure and free time. Falls are the most common cause of death and reason for hospital care periods in the whole country.Regional differences are explained among other things by varying alcohol consumption, local care practices and population structure.ConclusionsRegional national injury reports provide up-to-date information on municipalities’ injury situation. Injury reports guide local officials involved in safety planning to the right direction.