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Nutrition, Physical Activity, Sleep, and Chronic Conditions

The information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) survey lets us know there is much more work to do! The goal is improve the overall health and safety of students.

Some of the important data that comes from the survey shows the following:

Nearly three-quarters of high school students are not meeting the recommended guidelines for daily physical activity—at least 60 minutes or more each day.

  • Fifty percent more students are spending three or more hours per day playing video games or spending leisure time on their tablets, computers and smartphones than are meeting recommended levels of physical activity. This does not include additional time spent watching TV.
  • The prevalence for this leisure screen time was higher among black (47%) and Hispanic (45%) than white (41%) students.

A majority of high school students are still not getting enough sleep at night.

  • Seventy-four percent of students are not getting the recommended 8 hours of sleep each night.
  • The prevalence of getting 8 or more hours of sleep was higher among 9th grade (35%) than 10th grade (27%), 11th grade (21%), and 12th grade (18%).

There is room for improvement in healthy eating for students and large racial disparities exist. Forty percent of high school students are not eating even one vegetable each day.

  • The prevalence of not having eaten vegetables one or more times per day was higher among black students (51%) than Hispanic (44%) or white (37%) students.
  • Not enough students are starting their day with a healthy breakfast. Only 35% of students eat breakfast every day. More white students (38%) than black (29%) or Hispanic (32%) students are eating breakfast daily.

Visit the CDC Healthy Schools website for more information on creating healthier students.