MALDEN, Mass. (AP) – Fewer high school students are smoking, drinking, and having sex, but they’re also exercising less and skipping healthy foods, according to the latest Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
The survey is conducted every two years by the Department of Education to monitor behaviors related to the leading causes of death among young adults. The executive summary of the 2003 survey was released Thursday.
Daily cigarette smoking dropped from 10 percent in 2001 to 7 percent in 2003. Fewer students are trying cigarettes in the first place. Just over half of students surveyed have tried cigarettes, down from more than two-thirds a decade ago.
Forty-one percent of students have had sexual intercourse, down from 44 percent in 2001. The percentage of students who ever have been diagnosed with HIV or another sexually transmitted disease, however, doubled to 6 percent.
Forty-six percent said they regularly use alcohol, down from 53 percent in 2001. Binge drinking – consuming five or more drinks in a row within a few hours – dropped from 33 percent to 27 percent in the same period.
“Hopefully this means the right message is getting through to our students and many of them are starting to make healthier choices for themselves,” Education Commissioner David Driscoll said.
“So long as any of our students are smoking, drinking or taking drugs, we still have more work to do,” he added.
Twenty-eight percent of students said they regularly smoke marijuana, down from 31 percent in 2001. Cocaine use remained the same as 2001, just over 8 percent ever attempted.
Ecstasy use, at least once, dropped from 13 percent in 2001 to 9 percent. Thirty-four percent, up slightly from 2001, reported that they were offered, sold or given drugs at school.
Attempted suicide dropped from just under 10 percent to just over 8 percent.
Fewer students – 58 percent compared to 68 percent in 2001 – attended at least one gym class per week.
Only 11 percent of students surveyed said they ate five or more servings of fruits or vegetables per day, down from 13 percent in 2001.
Slightly more, 31 percent of students compared to 30 percent in 2001, watched an average of three or more hours of television per school day.
In all, 3,624 students from 50 randomly selected public high schools participated in the voluntary and anonymous survey last spring. State results will be released nationally Friday as part of the Centers for Disease Control’s nationwide survey.
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On the Net:
Executive summary: http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.asp?id1934
AP-ES-05-20-04 1845EDT
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