County youth avoiding many risky behaviors

QCS Managing Editor

Quay County’s high school students seem to be catching on that many unhealthy, unsafe actvities aren’t good for them, according to results of the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resliencey Survey conducted in 2013.

The findings were presented to a small group of county school and community health officials on Sept. 13 at the Tucumcari School District office.

The survey results show that fighting, carrying weapons, smoking, alcohol and drug use and even soda consumption have declined among teenagers in Quay County since at least 2007, and in some cases since 2003.

It’s part of a state-wide trend of declining frequency of these behaviors, Dan Green, a New Mexico Department of Health epidemiologist, said. Green is the leader of the team of health and education specialists that conducts the risk and resiliency study in odd-numbered years.

The discouraging news, however, he said, is that New Mexico’s teenagers are still abusing drugs at higher rates than their peers in most of the U.S.

In some areas, Quay County students reported higher rates of risky behaviors than did students statewide.

Quay County’s percentage of students reporting being sexually active is a little over 34 percent, compared to about 27 percent statewide. The percentage of students reporting they have ever had sex is 51 percent, compared with about 40 percent statewide. Rates of students reporting such activities have remained stable since 2003. Use of condoms, however, reached a low of nearly 38 percent in 2009 and climbed to nearly 63 percent in 2013.

Quay County high school students reported an obesity rate of nearly 19 percent, compared with the state average of 13 percent. The rate of students reporting obesity increased from about 13 percent to 19 percent from 2009 to 2013. Only 10 percent reported they were obese in 2003.

On the other hand, cigarette smoking among Quay County students in grades 9 to 12 is down from 38 percent in 2003 to 13 percent in 2013, the data show. Similar declines were reported in cigar smoking and use of snuff and chewing tobacco use.

While Green was careful not to attribute causes, school officials commented that stricter laws against buying tobacco products for minors have been a big factor.

Christina Fleming, a teacher at Tucumcari High School, said her students tell her regularly “smoking is gross.”

Use of illicit drugs, including the use of prescription painkillers to get high, has also trended downward since 2009, a year in which illicit drug use seems to have peaked in Quay County. No one seems to know why, Green said.

in 2009, almost 19 percent of Quay County students reported using painkillers to get high, compared to only about 9 percent in 2013. Cocaine use declined from 5.8 percent in 2009 to neaqrly 3 percent in 2013. Nearly 10 percent reported cocaine use in 2003.

In 2009, nearly 8 percent of the county’s high school students reported using methamphetamine, but only about 2 percent reported using it in 2013. In 2003, nearly 11 percent of students had reported using meth.

Reported heroin use declined from a peak of about 9 percent in 2009 to 2 percent in 2013. In 2011 no Quay County teens reported using heroin.

In all areas of drug use, Quay County’s percentage of students reporting use lagged New Mexico’s use rate. The greatest gap was in marijuana use. Statewide, about 28 percent of students reported using marijuana, compared with about 19 percent in Quay County.

While the number of students who reported physical education at least one day a week is down from its high of nearly 80 percent in 2007, it has risen from about 58 percent in 2009 to about 72 percent in 2013.

The percentage of students who engage in some physical activity every day jumped from 29 percent in 2011 to nearly 41 percent in 2013, the data show.

On the other hand, computer use or video gaming for three hours a day or more has risen fromnearly 9 percent in 2007 to almost 34 percent in 2013.

Resiliency factors include relations with parents and other adults, engagement in school activities and involvement in group activities and hobbies.

Among students who reported negative behaviors, there was high incidence of “not true at all” in ratings of statements about parental concern about schoolwork, belief in students’ success, knowing where students were and who they were with, and concern from other adults.

Among students reporting feelings of hopelessness, 86 percent reported it was “not true at all” that parents believed in their success. These students also reported they had no plans to continue education after high school and they had no friends who really cared about them in more than 80 percent of cases.

Students who reported being physically active on five to seven days a week, however, reported “very much true” about statements indicating support from parents, other adults and peers between 75 percent and 80 percent of the time in 2013.