No butts about it, Irish youths are healthiest...
»»Smoking and drinking down among adolescents »»They are getting more exercise than most others »»Satisfaction with life low as cyberbullying is on the rise
IRISH youngsters are drinking and smoking less and getting more exercise than kids in many other nations.
However, a major international survey revealed our 11, 13 and 15-year-olds are almost rock bottom for life satisfaction out of 45 countries.
It also exposed much higher levels of cyberbullying, problematic social media use and risky sexual behaviour here.
The study – Spotlight On Adolescent Health And Wellbeing was spearheaded by the World Health Organisation.
It compared the physical health, social relationships and mental wellbeing of 227,441 schoolchildren from 44 European countries and Canada.
Key findings show:
■ Irish children rank highly for eating breakfast and low for sugar-sweetened soft drink consumption at all ages with significant reductions in sweets and soft drink consumption since 2014
■ Ireland ranks low at all ages for reported tobacco and alcohol use
■ We rank in the top 10 in reported vigorous physical activity, with boys outscoring girls
■ Life satisfaction has significantly reduced since 2014 with Irish 15-yearolds ranking within the bottom two of 45 countries
■ Ireland ranks highly for problematic social media use at all ages, and among 13 and 15-yearolds the country is near the top of the cyberbullying league, and
■ Girls in Ireland rank among the top 10 countries for risky sexual behaviour in not using the contraceptive pill or condom at last intercourse.
The Irish end of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey was carried out at NUI Galway.
It asked thousands of adolescents to self-assess their mental health, body image, diet, physical activity, relationships with families and peers, tobacco, alcohol and cannabis use, bullying and sexual health ( for those aged 15 and above only). A special focus on online communication was included to better understand the expanding role of digital technology in young people’s lives.
Head of Health and Wellbeing at the Department of Health Kate O’flaherty said: “There are many areas where Ireland is doing well, for example our low smoking rates, low consumption of alcohol and sugar-sweetened drinks and comparatively good levels of physical activity.
“The areas of mental wellbeing and life satisfaction were comparatively less positive and while there is already a lot of good work underway between Government Departments, agencies and other partners to address this, it will be of increased priority as we support wellbeing and resilience in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
45 countries were used for the study – 44 in Europe and Canada
227,441
Number of 11, 13 and 15-year-olds who took part in the survey