Trends in Health-Risk Behaviors among Chinese Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescent health-risk behaviors can have long lasting negative effects throughout an individual’s life, and cause a major economic and social burden to society. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of the health-risk behaviors among Chinese adolescents and to test the trends in health-risk behaviors without and with adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Data were drawn from the School-based Chinese Adolescents Health Survey, which is an ongoing school-based study about the health-risk behaviors among Chinese adolescents (7th to 12th grade). During the first wave through the third wave, the prevalence of lifetime, past 12-month, and past 30-day use of opioid decreased by 4.19%, 0.63%, and 0.56%, respectively. Moreover, the prevalence of lifetime, past 12-month, and past 30-day sedative use decreased by 3.03%, 0.65%, and 0.35%, respectively. During the three waves, most trends in the prevalence of health-risk behaviors were downward, with a few exceptions: The prevalence of lifetime smoking, drinking, methamphetamine use, and sleep disturbance increased by 7.15%, 13.08%, 0.48%, and 9.06%, respectively. The prevalence of lifetime 3,4-methylene dioxy methamphetamine use (from 0.49% to 0.48%), lifetime mephedrone use (from 0.30% to 0.24%), or suicide attempts (from 2.41% to 2.46%) remained stable.