Where in Europe do teens have the best and worst mental health?
About two in five teenagers in Europe are struggling with their mental well-being, a new analysis has found, with girls faring worse than boys in each of the 37 countries included.
Young people today face a host of stressors, including social isolation and disruptions to their schooling caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as well as socioeconomic instability and the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, according to the report, known as the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD).
The study, which has been following teens' alcohol, smoking, and drug habits for 30 years, included nearly 114,000 students aged 15 and 16 across 37 European countries.
For the first time in 2024, the report assessed their mental health as well.
To track teens' mental well-being, the survey asked students how their lives have been going lately; for example, how often they feel cheerful, wake up feeling fresh, and how interested they are in their daily lives.
The researchers converted those answers into an index score; students who scored above 50 out of 100 on the index were considered to have good mental well-being.
Overall, 59 per cent of teenagers met that threshold. But there were major regional differences across Europe, with teens in Nordic countries doing fairly well and those in Central and Eastern Europe faring worse.
Teenagers in the Danish territory of the Faroe Islands were the most likely to report good mental well-being (77 per cent), followed by Iceland (75 per cent), and Denmark (72 per cent).
Meanwhile, teenagers in Ukraine reported the worst mental health, with just 43 per cent classified as doing well. Ukrainian adolescents have limited access to mental health care, the report noted, leaving them to grapple with war-related trauma largely on their own.
The next-lowest rates of mental well-being were recorded in the Czech Republic (46 per cent), Hungary (47 per cent), Cyprus and Poland (49 per cent each).
'Mental health is deeply connected to the broader social environments in which young people grow up,' Kadri Soova, director of the advocacy group Mental Health Europe, told Euronews Health. She was not involved with the study.
Girls were worse off than boys in each of the 37 countries studied. Across Europe, 49 per cent of girls and 69 per cent of boys report good mental health.
The gender gaps were even more stark in some countries. In Italy and Poland, for example, about two-thirds of boys report good mental health, compared with one-third of girls.
In Sweden, the relatively high rate of teenage well-being overall (62 per cent) masks gender differences. About four in five boys had good mental well-being, compared with less than half of girls.
The poorer outcomes among girls 'signals the urgent need for targeted, context-sensitive responses,' Soova said.
Europe is not the only region grappling with a rising toll of mental health problems among youth. Over the past decade, the rate of young people with mental health disorders has risen in every part of the world, according to a recent analysis from the Lancet medical journal.
Soova called on policymakers to invest in mental health education and accessible support for young people.
'By addressing both traditional and emerging challenges from substance use to online risks, we can build environments where all adolescents have the opportunity to thrive in dignity and well-being,' she said.
If you are contemplating suicide and need to talk, please reach out to Befrienders Worldwide, an international organisation with helplines in 32 countries. Visit befrienders.org to find the telephone number for your location.
West Nile virus has been detected in mosquitoes in the United Kingdom for the first time, as rising temperatures raise the risk that vector-borne diseases will become more common in Europe.
There have been no human infections in the UK so far, and the risk to the general public is "very low," according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
But the agency is ramping up surveillance and advising doctors to test certain patients whose health issues could be linked to the virus.
Fragments of West Nile virus were found in two groups of mosquitoes collected in wetlands in Nottinghamshire in July 2023, the agency said. Another 198 pools of mosquito samples collected in the same area tested negative for the virus.
"While this is the first detection of West Nile virus in mosquitoes in the UK so far, it is not unexpected as the virus is already widespread in Europe," Dr Meera Chand, UKHSA's deputy director for travel health, zoonoses, emerging infections, respiratory and tuberculosis, said in a statement.
West Nile, which is in the same family of viruses as dengue and yellow fever, is often found in birds and spreads through mosquito bites. People can also be infected, though about 80 per cent will have no symptoms.
The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1937, and it's commonly found in Africa, the Middle East, North America, and West Asia.
It has appeared more frequently in northern and western Europe in recent years as warmer weather tied to climate change makes the region more hospitable for mosquitoes.
"The detection of West Nile virus in the UK is part of a wider changing landscape, where, in the wake of climate change mosquito-borne diseases are expanding to new areas," Dr Arran Folly, an arbovirologist at the UK's Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), said in a statement.
In places where West Nile virus is more common, people tend to be infected in the summer months. Most people either have no or mild, flu-like symptoms, but in rare cases it can lead to neurological issues, such as brain swelling or meningitis.
In light of the virus' detection in the UK, doctors are being advised "as a precaution" to run additional tests on people with unexplained brain swelling, or encephalitis, the UKHSA said.
There is no vaccine or targeted treatment for West Nile virus.
James Logan, a professor of medical entomology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, called on public health and veterinary authorities to boost their surveillance to "stay one step ahead" of the virus.
"This is a moment to recognise that the UK is no longer immune to some diseases once considered 'tropical,'" Logan said in a statement.
"We are entering an era where we must learn to live smarter in a bug's world".
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