STUDY FINDS MORE TEENS AVOID SOME HEALTH RISKS

Use Of Alcohol And Tobacco Down, Seat Belts Up; But Trends In Obesity,
Drugs Pose Problems

ATLANTA — When it comes to health, teens seem to be getting the message.

High school students surveyed last year by the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention smoked less, drank less and used seat belts and bike helmets
more frequently than their counterparts 12 years earlier, according to an
analysis released Thursday.

In 2003, the new study found:

• 47 percent of students reported having had sex, down from 54 percent in 1991.

• The number who reported having had four or more sexual partners dipped to
14 percent in 2003 from 19 percent in 1991.

• And those who said they had used a condom the last time they had
intercourse rose to 63 percent from 46 percent in 1991.

Smoking, which increased among teenagers during the mid-'90s, also has
dropped. The number of students who reported the habit increased to 36
percent in 1997 from 28 percent in 1991, but it was just over 20 percent by
2003.

Students who said they had drunk alcohol fell to 75 percent from 82 percent
between 1991 and 2003.

That comes as little surprise to Azeezah Goodwin, an eighth-grader at Dutch
Fork Middle School.

"I believe that kids aren't engaging in as much risky behavior as they used
to," Goodwin said.

"My theory on this is that it is not as glamorous as it used to be to do
dangerous things and 'live on the edge.

"We also have more information than we used to. We know that smoking causes
cancer, unprotected sex can cause STDs and unwanted pregnancies, and that
drinking and driving can kill you and others on the road."

Preaundrea Franklin, a senior at Ridge View High School, had a slightly
different take.

"Well, as a teen nowadays, I can say that this is definitely hard to
believe," Franklin said.

" ... We always hear it on talk shows, pamphlets, regular shows, school,
and stuff like that about young teen mothers, and kids using drugs.

"That is all we get shoved down our throats as young adults now. They don't
tell us how statistics have changed through the years."

The numbers come from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a voluntary,
anonymous questionnaire the CDC has administered to high school students
every second year since 1991. The most recent version was given last spring
to 15,214 ninth-through 12th-grade students in 32 states.

The CDC also reported many teens remain exposed to significant health risks:

• In 2003, 2.6 million high school students said they rarely or never wore
seat belts

• 6.4 million drank alcohol.

• 3.1 million smoked cigarettes.

• 2.4 million carried a weapon.

Some trends are moving in the wrong direction, the agency cautioned. Use of
cocaine and illegal steroids has increased, numbers of those overweight
remain high, and fruit and vegetable consumption has not budged since the
agency began keeping track.

"Too many high school students are engaging in behaviors that place them at
risk for serious health, educational or social problems," said Jo Anne
Grunbaum, a scientist in CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion. "Even with the improvements, we still have
a ways to go."

The survey measures risky behaviors in six categories — injury and
violence, tobacco use, alcohol and drug use, sexual behavior, food
consumption and physical activity. It also asks whether students believe
they are overweight.

The responses are used to gauge whether the country is achieving health
goals set every 10 years by the federal government. They also serve as an
early predictor of the country's future health, because the patterns of
behavior that foster heart disease and cancer — the biggest killers in the
United States — often originate in adolescence.

The results of the 2003 survey suggest those behavior patterns can be
affected before they become hard-to-break habits. Teens are paying
attention, even when they appear not to be, the survey suggests.

"Young adults do listen to health messages, but it has to be the right
message," said Dr. Susan Butler, a behavioral scientist at Emory
University's Rollins School of Public Health who has studied tobacco use.
She was not involved in the CDC survey.

"What works well with young people and college-age people is messages that
speak of immediate risk. Such as: The carbon monoxide in cigarettes
displaces oxygen, so they won't have the lung and heart capacity they need
to play sports or be active."

Cox News Service, The New York Times and staff writer Gina Smith
contributed to this report.