June 28, 2002 ATLANTA (AP) -- Injury and violence-related behaviors among teenagers have fallen, but more teens are using cocaine and regularly smoking and drinking, according to a recent survey.
The government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined the behavior of 13,600 high school students from across the country for the annual survey, which was released Thursday.
Nearly half of the teens surveyed said they'd consumed more than one alcoholic beverage more than once in the month before the survey. But an increasing number are also wearing seat belts and refusing to ride with a driver who's been drinking.
The number of teenagers who said they had tried cocaine in their lifetime rose to 9.4 percent, up from 5.9 percent in 1991. About 4.2 percent of students said they had used cocaine in the past 30 days, up from 1.7 percent in 1991.
"We still have plenty of work to do," said Laura Kann, a researcher with the government agency's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
About 46 percent of teenagers said they'd had sex, down from 54 percent in the 1991 survey. The percentage of sexually active teenagers who had used a condom increased from 46 percent to 58 percent from 1991 to 1999, but remained at 58 percent through 2001.
Other findings from the survey:
-The number of teenagers who said they never or rarely wore a seat belt fell from 25.9 percent to 14.1 percent.
-The number of teenagers who said they rode with a driver who had been drinking fell from 39.9 percent to 30.7 percent.
-The percentage of teenagers in daily physical education class fell from 41.6 percent in 1991 to 32.2 percent a decade later.
-The percentage of students who carried a weapon decreased from 26.1 percent in 1991 to 17.4 percent in 2001.
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
