Smoking, Drug Abuse, Obesity Are Top Concerns Regarding Kids

Child smoking, obesity and drug abuse

Smoking, drug abuse and obesity are the top health concerns among adults regarding children in their communities, shows the new University of Michigan report based on data from Knowledge Networks. The findings also reveal a number of marked differences in concerns among those of different races/ethnicities and educational levels.

The report is the second of three to be based on a poll commissioned by the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and conducted on Knowledge Networks' KnowledgePanelSM, the only online panel based on a Random Digit Dial (RDD) telephone sample of the full U.S. population. The survey was fielded in March 2007 to a randomly selected, stratified group of adults, eighteen years of age and older. The poll asked adults to rate a total of 17 different health problems for children living in their communities; there were 2,076 respondents overall, including those with and without children. Ratings for the top 10 list did not differ between adults who have children in their households and those who do not.
The findings included:

• Smoking is cited by 40 percent of adults as their top health concern for children; among African American adults, however, smoking ranks second, behind teen pregnancy.

• Adults who report their child's emotional health as being "excellent" or "very good" are less likely to view drug abuse as a major health problem among kids; but those who view their kids as having "good," "fair" or "poor" emotional health see drug abuse as a greater concern.

• Higher education plays a substantial role in adults' concerns about childhood obesity. Among those with a college degree, 40% view obesity as a top concern for children, compared to 25% among those with less than a high school education.

• Hispanic adults are more likely (42%) to report obesity as being a major health problem for kids, compared with only 31 percent of white adults and 36 percent of black adults.

• Fifty-one percent of African American adults rate teen pregnancy as a major health concern, compared to 25% of whites.

• Women are more likely than men to report Internet safety as a big health concern for children. Thirty-two percent of women and 21 percent of men report they are concerned about Internet safety.

• Overall, higher proportions of African American and Hispanic adults rate all 17 concerns as "big problems" compared with white adults.

The other health concerns ranking in the top 10 were alcohol abuse, motor vehicle accidents, teen pregnancy, Internet safety, school violence, sexually transmitted infections, and abuse and neglect. Health issues for children not ranked in the top ten included: psychological stress, depression, eating disorders, suicide, autism, childhood cancer and food contamination.

KnowledgePanelSM is unique in that all of its online members are recruited via a Random Digit Dial (RDD) telephone sample, and Internet access and hardware are provided to households that do not already have it. As a result, the sample is scientifically valid and yields accurate measurements of attitudes and behaviors. By contrast, opt-in panels are comprised of self-selected volunteers whose survey responses reflect only their attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors; results based on their responses are not projectable to any other population group.