TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2001//
TI  - Prevalence of health-related behaviors among alternative high school students as compared with students attending regular high schools
JO  - Journal of Adolescent Health
A1  - Grunbaum, J. A.
A1  - Lowry, R.
A1  - Kann, L.
SP  - 337
EP  - 343
VL  - 29
IS  - 5
N2  - PURPOSE: To provide national data on health-risk behaviors of students attending alternative high schools and compare the prevalence of these risk behaviors with data from the 1997 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey. METHODS: The national Youth Risk Behavior Survey uses a three-stage cluster sampling design. Data were collected from 8918 students in alternative high schools in 1998 (ALT-YRBS) and 16,262 students in regular high schools in 1997 (YRBS). The health-risk behaviors addressed include behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence, tobacco use, alcohol and other drug use, sexual behaviors, unhealthy dietary behaviors, and physical inactivity. A weighing factor was applied to each student record to adjust for nonresponse and varying probabilities of selection. SUDAAN was used to compute 95% confidence intervals, which were considered significant if the 95% confidence intervals did not overlap. RESULTS: Students attending alternative high schools were at significantly greater risk than students in regular high schools for violence-related injury; suicide; human immunodeficiency virus infection or other sexually transmitted diseases; pregnancy; and development of chronic disease related to tobacco use, unhealthy dieting practices, and lack of vigorous activity. CONCLUSIONS: Many students in alternative high schools are at risk for both acute and chronic health problems. Because these youth are still in a school setting, alternative high schools are in a unique position to provide programs to help decrease the prevalence of risk-taking behaviors.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1054-139X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -