Executive Summary

1996 Teen Health Survey

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How did we get this information?
In the spring of 1996 a self-reported Teen Health Survey was conducted by the Bruce-Grey- Owen Sound Health Unit. About 200 high school students were carefully selected from one entire school population. Every fifth student in each grade was asked to participate. Alternates were identified if the chosen student was absent. This process produced a sample that reflects the entire student body reasonably well.

What happened?
Students appreciated being asked. They took the survey seriously and treated the process with respect. A great deal of local information was collected.

What did we find?
Data was categorized in seven areas and reported in the 1996 - Teen Health Survey. This report is more than a summary of the data. It is set-up in a workbook style to encourage you to think about the collected information. The following is an overview of the findings.
 

1. Physical Activity

• Most students are active.

Sixty-five percent of the students were active three or more times per week. Although this is similar to the Ontario rate for teens found in the Ontario Health Survey in 1990, the public health objective for adults is to have 75% participating in regular activity by the year 2000.

• Fewer females are active daily.

Significantly fewer females (12%) than males(27%) are active daily.

• One quarter of students are inactive but plan to increase their activity level.

Only a small proportion of these have immediate plans to increase their activity level. Strategies to increase physical activity might focus on assisting the 27% of students who are not currently active but have some desire to do so.

• Most inactive students believe that their activity level is unlikely to lead to health problems.

Strategies to increase physical activity must consider that 60% inactive students do not link their inactivity to their health.
 

2. Nutrition and Body Image

• Two thirds of students have a healthy body weight.

• Half of students eat breakfast.

• More females than males are too thin.

Significantly more females (16%) are too thin than males (5%).

• Many of the students who are trying to lose weight do not need to lose weight for their health.

Nearly a quarter (22%) of the student population is trying to lose weight but are already at or below a healthy weight. Strategies to stop students from dieting and encourage sound eating habits must be considered to increase the number of students with healthy weights.
 

3. Drinking

• Alcohol is the most common recreational drug in Bruce and Grey Counties.

Eighty-five percent of the students reported that they had been drunk. Public health aims to reduce the percentage of adolescents that use illicit drugs to 15% by the year 2000.

• Nearly half of students are binge drinkers.

Drinking 10 or more drinks at a time is considered to be "binge drinking". Students had to have gone on binges more than once to be considered binge drinkers. Half of the binge drinkers or 23% of the total students have gone on drinking binges 10 or more times in the past year.

• 70% of 14 year olds report binge drinking.

Reported binge drinking peaks at age 14 and then decreases to about 50% in the other ages.

• Students have limited awareness of the impact of binge drinking on their health and safety.

Three quarters (73%) of students believe that binge drinking has almost no impact on their risk of STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) and unwanted pregnancy or drunk driving. Half (47%) of binge drinkers believe that binge drinking will have little or no effect on their risk of injury.

• Half (47%) of the students report that they get drunk sometimes and have no plans to stop.

 4. Drugs

• Over half of the students (55%) have never used marijuana and think they never will.

• Hard drugs are used by 5% of the student population.

 5. Driving

• Students do not always wear their seat-belts.

Half (49%) of students always fasten their seat-belts when they are passengers and three quarters of students (74%) wear their seat-belts when they are driving.

• Nearly half (44%) of students have driven with an impaired driver and 13% of students have driven drunk.

Public health aims to reduce the injuries and deaths from alcohol and drug-related motor vehicle accidents.
 

6. Smoking

• One third (36%) of students smoke.

Public health aims to increase the percentage of the population, aged 12 to 18, that does not use tobacco to 90 % by the year 2000.

• 14% of the student population smoke and have plans to quit.

• Two thirds (67%) of students who smoke get their cigarettes from friends.

The next most common source of cigarettes is convenience stores where just under half (48%) of students who smoke get cigarettes.

• Twenty percent of smokers (or 7% of the total student population) would benefit from a "stop smoking" class.

7. Sexual Health

• Over 2/3 of students (69%) report that they are not sexually active now.

There is no significant difference between the numbers of sexually active females than males.

• About 2/3 (64%) of students are confident in their ability to say no to sex if they were being pressured.

Females are significantly more confident in their ability to say no to sex then males.

• Less then half of the students have talked with their partner about using condoms.

• Almost none of the students who have never been drunk were sexually active at the time of the survey.

There appears to be a relationship between drinking behavior and sexual activity.

 

What can you do with this information?
This report provides the most comprehensive, up-to-date local data on the health of teens. However, it is based on a sample from one school. You may wish to be cautious about assuming that youth through-out Bruce and Grey Counties are all the same. The percentages presented here are simply markers. They provide you with a beginning point in developing local strategies to improve the health of your local youth.

 

Ordering:
Due to the size of the report and production costs, copies are in limited supply. For more information contact Sue Askin, Assistant Director, Health Protection at the Owen Sound office. Telephone 1-519-376-9420