Following the release earlier this year of the provincial results of the McCreary Centre Society’s 2008 Adolescent Health Survey, local results are now available.

Results for the East Kootenay area, which included students in Southeast Kootenay, Rocky Mountain and Kootenay Lake, showed that the majority of Grade 7-12 students in East Kootenay are in good health; are feeling connected to their family, school and community; and are engaging in health promoting behaviours that will assist them to transition into healthy adults.

One major piece of good news was that the percentage of local students who had ever tried smoking decreased from 49% in 2003 to 38% in 2008.

Annie Smith, Executive Director of the McCreary Centre Society said of the local results “It is encouraging to see such a drop in the percentage of youth trying cigarettes. This is definitely a move in the right direction, as was the 10% decrease we saw in the use of marijuana.”

Injury prevention behaviour also improved locally with 61% of students always wearing a seatbelt compared to only 47% in 2003, although the percentage of students who were injured seriously enough to require medical attention remained similar to the 2003 rates at 38%

“The results also highlight the issues faced by the most vulnerable youth in this area and show us things that can improve their health outcomes, such as having friends with healthy attitudes to risky behaviours, feeling connected to school and family, and feeling listened to in activities they are engaged in.”

Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Perry Kendall wrote the forward to the provincial report and noted, “If we believe that it takes a village to raise a child then we realize that we are that village, and all B.C. children are our children. To raise them successfully as a society, we need to know a lot about them. We need to be driven by good information if we are to be able to meet our obligations to our children under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Canada is a signatory.”