MISSING DATA FLAW TEEN POLL

SKEWED RISK SURVEY SAYS STATE MOSTLY MIRRORS U.S.

Alaska teens are less sexually active than teenagers
Outside.

But more Alaska teens carry weapons, more chew tobacco or snuff, and
more smoke marijuana than teenagers in the rest of the United States.

Those are the conclusions of Alaska's version of the 1999 Youth Risk
Behavior Survey, developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and administered by the state.

The Alaska survey, given to teens in many Alaska schools during spring
1999, has one missing chunk of data: Anchorage kids. The Anchorage
School District decided not to participate for fear that giving the
anonymous surveys would violate state laws. Since then, state rules
have been clarified to support the district's view.

The lack of survey information about Anchorage students makes it
impossible to find trends in the behavior of Alaska teens today
compared with the mid-1990s. "You can't compare the results directly
to the 1995 survey," in which Anchorage students did participate, said
Tammy Green, a state health education specialist and coordinator of
the survey.

The Alaska survey in 1999 included a random sample of 1,427 high
school students from across Alaska, except for Anchorage.

Nationally, the 1999 youth risk survey, released last week, found that
cocaine, marijuana and cigarette use among high school students
increased during the 1990s even while campaigns against youth smoking
were stepped up. But cigarette use appears to have peaked in 1997 and
dropped a little since then.

The national survey also recorded a drop in the number of teens having
sex and an increase in the use of condoms among those who do have sex.

The results for Alaska teens mirrored those for the United States with
a handful of exceptions.

The biggest difference is the percentage of Alaskans who chew snuff or
tobacco. Twenty-one percent of Alaska boys said they had chewed
tobacco or snuff in the previous month, compared with 14 percent of
boys nationally. Nine percent of Alaska girls used it, compared with 1
percent nationally.

Green said people might think the chewing figures would be especially
affected by the absence of Anchorage because of the perception that
more rural kids chew tobacco. But, she said, the sample did include
sizable numbers of kids from areas similar to Anchorage, such as
Fairbanks, the Matanuska-Susitna area and Juneau.

"I would not want to say one way or the other" whether the lack of
Anchorage results made a difference, she said.

Use of inhalants like glues, paints or gasoline to get high was
reported to be about the same for Alaskans and non-Alaskans, nearly 15
percent.

One of four Alaska boys said he'd had sex in the three months before
the survey, vs. one of three boys nationally. Twenty-nine percent of
Alaska girls had had sex, vs. 36 percent in the national poll.

Eighteen percent of Alaska boys said they'd carried a weapon, such as
a knife or even a gun, on school property. That compares with 11
percent of boys nationally and about 4 percent of girls nationally and
in Alaska.

About 50 percent of Outside kids drink alcohol, and only 47 percent of
Alaskans do. But more Alaska kids smoke marijuana than other youths