The frequency of health care use is crucial for adolescent well-being and health systems. The present study was the first to test a set of variables in a representative sample of Greek adolescents in order to identify factors that predict health care use and contribute to improving health service planning. Questionnaires were administered to a random sample of adolescents (N=1 194) aged 11–18 years and their parents (N=973) in 2003. Data from 894 participants with full data were analyzed. Parents' education, adolescents' chronic health needs, physical well-being and emotional/behavioural problems as well as parent-child relationship were independent predictors of health care use, although some factors, such as gender, age, type of residence, family affluence, social support and parental health status that previous research identified as predictors were not confirmed. Beyond the need of health care, other factors also play an important role in the utilization of health services by adolescents and their families.

Although several studies have reported findings concerning the association between smoking and emotional/behavioural problems, little research has investigated this association after controlling for confounding factors which have been found to be significantly correlated with both cigarette smoking and emotional/behavioural problems and may have a strong effect on the relationship between adolescents' mental health and smoking. The present study attempted to assess the association between adolescents' smoking status and their emotional/behavioural problems after controlling for a number of possible confounders (i.e. age, gender, parental smoking status, exposure to family smoking, family socioeconomic status, adolescents' leisure time) in a Greek nation-wide school-based sample.