Coalition analyzes results of IYS

Guest Column
By: 
Jennifer Husmann
JCSHY Coalition, Project Coordinator

     The Jones County Safe and Healthy Youth Coalition recently began to analyze the newly released 2016 Iowa Youth Survey (IYS) data for Jones County. This data is more than numbers. It is the youth of Jones County anonymously letting us know their thoughts and actions. With the relatively small population of youth in one grade across the county, numbers can fluctuate year-to-year more than in larger populations. It is important to look at trends even more closely than certain numbers in a given year. The IYS does use validity checks to ensure there are not errors in the responses.

     Thankfully, the youth binge drinking numbers continue to go down some. The number of 11th grade youth reporting binge drinking one or more times in the past 30 days, at the time of the survey in the fall, decreased from 16 percent to 15 percent between the 2014 and 2016 IYS. The survey is given every two years. This would not be a significant change by itself, but when looking at the trends over the past 15 years, it is very significant. When the Coalition started working on these issues, 52 percent of 11th graders were reporting binge drinking. That is an incredible decrease. Although it is still alarming that 15 percent of juniors in high school are reporting binge drinking regularly, which is about 1 in 7 youth, it is much better than more than 1 in 2 youth.

     Youth reporting consuming at least one drink of alcohol in the past month has stayed consistent at 24 percent over the past three Iowa Youth Surveys. The Coalition wants to do more to reduce these numbers. This is especially true now because the surveys show the youth perception of harm of drinking alcohol is decreasing. When asked, “How much do you think you risk harming yourself if you drink three or more drinks of alcohol nearly every day?” only 69 percent of the youth thought that this would be a “Great or Moderate Risk.” That number was down 6 percentage points since the 2014 survey, which had a 75 percent rate of reporting “Great or Moderate Risk,” and in 2012, 78 percent. The number of youth reporting how easy it is to obtain alcohol went down, which is good news. The number who said it was “Easy or Very easy” to get alcohol decreased from 68 percent to 64 percent. This has been a focus of the Coalition, but we know we need to work on the perception of harm again more too. More education reminding of the dangers and health effects to the teen brain is needed.

     Mostly good news was seen with teen tobacco and cigarette use (decreasing 13 percent to 12 percent and 9 percent to 8 percent respectively), although e-cigarette use went up (7 percent to 10 percent). Tobacco use has decreased greatly since 2012 when the 11th grade rate was 21 percent and the cigarette use was 14 percent.

     There was fairly positive news with prescription and over-the-counter drug misuse. The numbers held steady with between 4 percent to 6 percent misuse of prescriptions reported. In light of what is happening across the nation with prescription drug overdoses, it is important the numbers didn’t increase, but diligence is needed to keep these numbers down. Over-the-counter drug misuse decreased from 8 percent to 5 percent – another trend for the better.

     For the first time since 2008, when the Coalition started working on marijuana prevention, the numbers of youth reporting marijuana use went up. In 2008, 16 percent of youth reported using marijuana in the past month, but the numbers had gone down each year and by 2014 just 7 percent reported using marijuana regularly. In the latest survey, 11 percent of juniors reported using marijuana regularly, which was higher than 2010 levels. This was somewhat expected when perception of harm numbers were decreasing statewide with the last IYS. The perception of harm plummeted from 70 percent to 56 percent of youth reporting “Great or Moderate Risk” of using marijuana more than once a week at their age. The reported “Easy and Very Easy” access to marijuana also went up from 51 percent to 57 percent. This is troubling. The Coalition’s planning committee is looking at these numbers and other related numbers very carefully and coming up with new solutions to try to combat this trend happening nationally and affecting our youth locally. We plan to work more closely with schools again, and plan to work more on mental health prevention, which can be a reason for substance use.

     There is plenty of work to do to keep protecting our youth from current dangerous substances as well as emerging trends. If you would like to get involved with the Coalition’s efforts, please consider attending our next meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 11:30 a.m. at the Lawrence Community Center in Anamosa or feel free to call Jennifer Husmann, project coordinator, at 462-4327 x202 to find out more about the work of the Coalition and how we can all work together for the sake of the Jones County youth. 

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