Youth statewide drinking, smoking less
Data from the Healthy Youth Survey 2012
MOSES LAKE - Grant County middle school and high school students report using alcohol, smoking marijuana and using tobacco slightly more often than the statewide average. Those were some of the results from the biannual Healthy Youth Survey, conducted by a coalition of state agencies.
The survey was done in October 2012. More than 200,000 sixth and eighth graders and high school sophomores and seniors statewide answered the questions.
In Adams County, only one school participated so results were not published. The results are available online at the Healthy Youth Survey website.
Statewide, fewer teens are smoking and drinking alcohol, but among high school students the percentage of students using marijuana is about double the percentage of those smoking cigarettes. About 55 percent of seniors and 32 percent of sophomores statewide said they have had sex.
The difference between the state averages and the county responses shrink as kids get older. About 5.4 percent of sixth graders in Grant County report drinking alcohol in the past 30 days, as opposed to about 2.5 percent statewide. But about 38.8 percent of Grant County seniors reported drinking in the last 30 days, as opposed to about 36.1 percent statewide.
About 5.6 percent of Grant County sophomores say they've been drunk or high at school once or twice within the last year, which is slightly under the state average. About 7.4 percent of seniors say they've been under the influence at school once or twice within the last year. About 5.4 percent of eighth graders in the county say it's happened once or twice.
About 5.3 percent of eighth graders, 7.3 percent of sophomores and 9.8 percent of seniors locally say they have consumed five or more drinks in one sitting within the last two weeks. (Five drinks or more is considered binge drinking,) That's higher than the state average.
About 5.3 percent of Grant County seniors, 5.3 percent of sophomores and 1.6 percent of eighth graders say they've been intoxicated at school at least 10 times in the last year. In all cases that's near the state average.
Tobacco use locally has followed the state's downward trend, but more kids in Grant County smoke cigarettes and use chewing tobacco than the statewide average. About 2.4 percent of sixth graders, 7.7 percent of eighth graders, 10.4 percent of sophomores and 16.5 percent of seniors in Grant County say they have smoked a cigarette in the last 30 days.
But while tobacco and alcohol use has decreased both locally and statewide, more students are fighting depression, about one in every six students statewide, according to the report. About 27.7 percent of eighth graders, 16.5 percent of sophomores and 35.3 percent of seniors in Grant County reported feelings of sadness so intense they stopped their normal activities. Those are slightly higher than the state average, but when it comes to actually attempting suicide, the local numbers are slightly lower.