Data & Statistics

Virginia Data

or click here for National Data

The following data are from: Bright Futures Virginia: Healthy Young People 2001, A Snapshot of Virginia's School-Age Population. This brochure summarizes the health conditions, health risk behaviors, and health care resources of Virginia's school-age youth. The full report is Bright Futures Virginia: Healthy Young People 2001, A Picture of Virginia's School-Age Population.

Physical Activity and Fitness

• The percentage of Virginia's students passing all four school physical fitness tests increased from 1991 to 1997 but remained low for all age groups and declined with grade level.

Nutrition

• 1997 and 2000 studies found that one-third of Virginia's fourth grade students were overweight.

Tobacco Use

• In 1996, 27.5% of Virginia youths smoked. The proportion of smokers ranged from 21.4% in Northern Virginia to 31.9% in Central Virginia.

Alcohol Use

• Violations for possession of alcohol in schools decreased from 1996 to 1997 for students in grades 7-10 and increased for students in grades 11 and 12.
• Kids Count in Virginia reports an increase in statewide violations for drug and alcohol possession in Virginia schools from1993 to 1997.

Sexual Activity

• The birth rate per 1,000 teenagers in Virginia is slightly below the national rate.
• Virginia's teen pregnancy rate has steadily declined over the last decade.
• The number of HIV cases reported for Virginia's young people declined from 1996 to 1998. Among 10-19 year-olds, 41 cases were reported in 1996 compared with 27 cases reported in 1998.

Injury and Violence

• In 1997, firearm death rates for children aged 5-19 were higher in Virginia than nationally (8.21 deaths per 100,000 compared with 7.20 nationally). This was the first year in a decade that Virginia's firearm death rate was higher than the national rate.
• In Virginia, homicide rates for all comparable groups of youth were below national rates.
• In 1996-97, there were 321 violations for physical assaults resulting in serious injuries in Virginia's schools.
• In 1996-97, there were 128 firearm violations and 1,988 non-firearm weapon violations in Virginia's schools.

Morbidity and Mortality

• In 1995, Virginia's top four hospital discharge conditions for youth 10-19 years old were deliveries, depression, unintentional injuries, and asthma.
• Among 5-9 year-olds, asthma was the most frequent hospital discharge condition followed by unintentional injury (the most expensive condition reported). Among 10-14 year-olds, depression was the most common condition for hospitalization followed by unintentional injury. Among 15-19 year-olds, deliveries, depression, and unintentional injury accounted for the greatest number of hospital discharges.
• The leading causes of death in Virginia for 5-9 year-olds were unintentional injury, cancer, and cardiovascular disease; unintentional injury, cancer and suicide for children aged 10-14; and unintentional injury, suicide, homicide, and cardiovascular disease for youth aged 15-19.
• Death rates for black youths aged 5-14 and 15-24 in Virginia are nearly double the rates for white youth. In the older age group, homicide accounts for most of this difference.

Student Health

• In school year 2000-01, nearly one-third (30.45%) of Virginia's public school students were eligible for the free and reduced price school lunch program.
• In 1997, there were nearly 150,000 students with disabilities in Virginia's public schools. In 1995, there were approximately 8,500 medically fragile students in public schools.
• In school year 1998-99, 57 Virginia school divisions (43%) met or exceeded a nurse-to-student ratio of 1:1,000.

Access to Quality Health Care

• In 1999, 10% of Virginia's children aged 0-18 had no health care coverage. This represented between 135,000 and 205,000 uninsured children.
• In 1999, 25% of Virginia children had no "medical home" or a consistent place where they received both acute and preventive health care.

Other State Data:
Action Alliance for Virginia's Children & Youth
Virginia Center for Health Statistics
Virginia Department of Health

NATIONAL DATA

Delivering Quality Health Care: Adolescents' Discussion of Health Risks with their Providers. Journal of Adolescent Health, 3/02.

Surveyed 6,748 adolescents (male & female) in grades 5-12 (1997 data):

• Adolescents wanted health care providers to discuss:
• Drugs (65%)
• STDs (61%)
• Smoking (59%)
• Good eating habits (57%)
• Health care providers actually discussed:
• Good eating habits (49%)
• Weight (43%)
• Exercise (41%)
• 33% of adolescents did not discuss any of the desired topics with their health care provider
• 12% discussed all of the desired topics with their health care provider
• 14.1% discussed all of the desired topics with their health care provider when they had private time with the provider compared to 9.8% if they were not given private time.

Among adolescents engaging in "risky" behaviors, 62.7% did not discuss any of the following behaviors with their health care provider:

• Abuse
• Alcohol use
• Binging and purging
• Drug use within the past month
• Exercising less than twice a week
• Being willing to have sex without contraception
• Smoking
• High stress

14% had discussed all of these behaviors with their health care provider.

Adolescents seeing a female provider were more likely to discuss these risks than those seeing a male provider (45.0% vs. 36.3%)

Youth Risk Behavioral Survey (YRBS)

The YRBS is a critical public health surveillance tool to monitor adolescent health risk behavior. This tool was developed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and is conducted by over two-thirds of the states. Several other states administer similar youth-risk surveys developed by the states prior to the creation of the YRBS. YRBS is the only youth-risk behavior survey that measures all health behaviors directly related to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among adolescents. Virginia has not conducted a statewide YRBS with a representative sample and, therefore, lacks baseline data on many statewide youth risk behaviors.

What is the YRBS?

1. Developed by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 1991

2. 87-question survey

3. Survey is anonymous

4. Administered to youth in 9-12 grades

5. Assesses personal health behaviors related to leading causes of morbidity and mortality

• Nutrition practices
• Physical activity
• Bicycle and motor vehicle safety
• Physical violence
• Suicide attempts
• Tobacco use
• Alcohol and drug use
• Sexual activity

6. Provides data by:

• Age
• Race
• Gender
• Grade

7. Conducted biennially

8. Administered since 1991

9. Takes 45 minutes to complete (1 class period)

10. Funded by CDC as requested by the state Department of Education

11. In 2001, 38 states conducted YRBS

12. 16 local school districts in Virginia conducted a local YRBS in 2001

How is the YRBS used nationally?

1. Measure adolescent health behaviors directly related to the leading causes of morbidity and mortality

• Motor vehicle deaths
• Other unintentional injuries
• Homicides
• Suicides

2. Determine areas of greatest need

3. Establish appropriate goals for adolescent health programs including:

• Pregnancy prevention
• Abstinence education
• STD prevention
• Smoking avoidance
• Drug avoidance
• Physical activity promotion
• Nutrition
• Traffic safety
• Injury prevention

4. Evaluate program effectiveness

5. Demonstrate positive youth choices

6. Develop health-related policy

7. Provide data for grant proposals and applications

8. Data comparable between states and the US as a whole

Statewide Surveys that will be Administered in Virginia during School Year 2003

• CDC Youth Tobacco Survey
  Administered by Tobacco Settlement Fund
  Measures use, attitudes, and behaviors concerning tobacco use
• Virginia Community Youth Survey
  Administered by DMHMRSAS
  Measures alcohol, tobacco, and drug use

Other National Data:

Child Trends

Kids Count

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Adolescent and School Health provides a variety of resources, including statistics on pregnancy, birth and STD rates by State, guidelines for comprehensive school health education, and funding opportunities for school health programs.

National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health contains information on the largest and most comprehensive study of youth health in the United States

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