Pubdate: Sun, 06 Apr 2008 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 The Province Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: John Bermingham, The Province Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) DRUG, ALCOHOL USE DOWN AMONG SCHOOLKIDS, SUGGESTS SURVEY One In Six Children Are Overweight If the health of B.C. schoolkids could be summed up in a school progress report, it would read "improving, but needs to work harder." B.C.'s top doctor said Friday that drug and alcohol use are down, as are teen pregnancies. But stress levels are up, along with obesity and sexually transmitted diseases. "In the long run, we need healthier adults," said Dr. Perry Kendall. "If you start with healthy children, you'll get healthy adults." In surveys, 95 per cent of students rated their own health as excellent in more urban areas, but the figure fell to 87 per cent in some rural areas. Overall, students in the interior and northern B.C. consistently scored lower than in the Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island in health categories. Kendall said he's concerned about increasing stress and weight problems. Roughly one in six kids is overweight, a number that has increased over the past decade due to the lack of physical activity and the time spent on the web, he said. "I think it's shown in the increasing overweight and the decreasing physical activity," said Kendall. "We've sort of engineered a society where the advertising is about your thirst, super-size it -- and you spend more time in front of a screen and doing less activity. What we need to do is re-engineer back to the healthy behaviours." While teen drinking is steady overall, 45 per cent of under-aged teens say they binge drink. "If you look in the liquor stores at the amount of coolers and vodka-chocolate pre-mixers, there's been a big increase in sales there, and a lot of that increase in sales is going to young people," Kendall said. Girls are doing better in school than boys and have better social networks, but still have problems with their body image. At Burnaby's Alpha Secondary School, which has 850 students, 17-year-old Cody Tibbitts said he plays rugby and takes gym at school. "It's the student's choice keeping healthy," said Tibbitts. "All the priorities should not be put on somebody else." Paula Nicoli, 17, said she doesn't do much physical activity, but spends a lot of time on Facebook chatting with her friends online. "I don't exercise at school," said Nicoli. "I just go home, go on the computer." Alpha principal Brian Jackson said his students face many complex pressures but are eating better and exercising. "Students have a much more complex life than they did in the past," he said. Jackson said kids may be under more pressure at school, in their home life and by peers. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath