Some positive and negative takeaways from a student survey conducted recently by the Northwestern Health Unit.
The survey found that students in the Health Unit’s catchment area reported more adverse health behaviors compared to Ontario average.
Exceptions include hours of sleep per night, which was better than Ontario average, and meeting national guideline for physical activity, which was similar to the Ontario average.
On the negative side, the study found that substance use was fairly high.
22 percent of student admit they binge drank in the past 30 days and 22 percent said they used cannabis in the last month.
27 percent said they also vaped, and substance abuse rates increase from grade 9 to grade 12.
The Compass survey was conducted in 8 schools throughout the region with 57 percent of students participating.
The survey results showed that:
- 28% of students eat breakfast 7 days per week
- 6% sometimes go to bed hungry because there is not enough money to buy food
- 72% are meeting the national guideline of 60 min/day of physical activity
- 3% are meeting the national guideline of 2 hours or less of recreational screen time per day
- 27% of students used an e-cigarette (vape) in the past 30 days
- 48% of students who have never vaped are susceptible to start vaping in the future
- 16% have smoked a cigarette in the last 30 days
- 22% reported binge drinking alcohol in the last 30 days
- 22% reported using cannabis in the past 30 days
- 55% rated their mental health as good, very good or excellent
The full report can be found here
