© 2012 the Nordic Societies of Public Health DOI: 10.1177/1403494812456633 Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2012; 0: 1–10 Background

Health inequalities and especially the socioeconomic determinants of mortality and morbidity have been analysed extensively in many countries during the last decades and these research issues continue to be in focus [1−3]. However, significantly less attention is paid by researchers to investigation of such health predictors as migration, ethnicity, or religion. Also, relatively few studies have analysed the ethnic dis-parities in risk-taking behaviour or self-perceived health in youth [4]. Socioeconomic status (i.e. income, occupation, and education) does not explain the whole range of health and health-behaviour variations in Europe. The findings indicate that ethnicity, migration status, and integration into local community are also impor-tant factors in terms of health among adult popula-tions. The above-mentioned determinants could be really important, especially in the countries with a high proportion of migrants or with a substantial eth-nical minority population. Very few studies have Health-behaviour inequalities among Russian and ethnic majority school-aged children in the Baltic countrie