Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series on Utah’s Student Health and Risk Prevention survey on Tooele County students. Part One is about alcohol, tobacco and drug use among youth.
Tooele County teenagers are drinking less, smoking less, and using less drugs than they have in the past.
The 2015 Student Health and Risk Prevention Survey, completed by students in grades six through 12 in the spring of 2015, indicates that a multi-year trend of declining student alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use has continued.
“We have seen a downward trend in these areas since we first started collecting data in 1998,” said Julie Spindler, prevention coordinator for Tooele County School District.
Back in 1998, almost 25 percent of students surveyed said they had used alcohol in the last 30 days. In 2015, the number of students reporting alcohol use in the last 30 days dropped to 7.8 percent.
A collaborative community effort is responsible for the downward trend, according to Amy Bate, health promotion/community services supervisor for the Tooele County Health Department.
“Change takes time,” she said. “The health department started a concerted effort along with the school district, Valley Behavioral Health, and Communities that Care. That effort has paid off.”
In 2007, armed with a three-year $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, a coalition of prevention professionals in Tooele County set out to attack underage drinking, Bate said.
Life skills classes in schools, and community-based parenting classes that were part of the Communities that Care grant for Tooele City, were expanded to include the entire county.
New education programs were also added to high schools and the Boys and Girls Club.
“Most Don’t,” a professionally designed, multi-media marketing campaign, was launched to tell the truth about teen drinking in Tooele County.
“We wanted to rewrite the story of the county,” Bate said. “Many people have heard over and over that in Tooele County kids drink, and that just is not true.”
The false assumption that most youth drink alcohol creates pressure among youth to conform, as well as an attitude of resignation and acceptance from parents and the community, according to Bate.
The reality is in 2015 the majority (78.6 percent) of Tooele County youth in grades 6 through 12 have never used alcohol in their lifetime, according to the 2015 SHARP survey.
When it comes to alcohol use within the last 30 days, 92.2 percent of youth have not used it, according to the survey.
Lifetime use of cigarettes, described as even just one puff, among Tooele County youth is down to 12.4 percent in 2015 from 14.3 percent in 2013.
Only 3.3 percent of Tooele County youth surveyed reported that they smoked a cigarette in the last 30 days.
More Tooele County youth reported using marijuana in the last 30 days than reported smoking a cigarette in the same time frame. Thirty-day use of marijuana among youth surveyed was 6.3 percent in 2015.
However, marijuana use among Tooele County youth is on the decline. In 2011, the reported use of marijuana among Tooele County youth in the last 30 days was 7.1 percent. In 2013, it was 6.9 percent.
The survey results also showed a decline in the previous 30-day use of inhalants to 1.6 percent in 2015; meth to 0.2 percent in 2015; and ecstasy to 0.2 percent in 2015, among Tooele County youth.
But while the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs are declining, the SHARP survey showed a disturbing new trend: an increase in e-cigarette use among Tooele County youth, according to Bate.
“E-cigarettes are a new thing,” she said. “They have become a popular trend.”
In 2011, the first year the SHARP survey collected data on e-cigarette use among youth, 2.0 percent of Tooele County youth surveyed said they used an e-cigarette, vape pen, or e-hookah in the last 30-days. In 2013, that number rose to 4.4 percent. In 2015, a total of 10.3 percent of youth surveyed said they had used an e-cigarette in the last 30 days.
“Youth use e-cigarettes thinking they are safe,” Bate said. “E-cigarettes are so new we don’t have a lot of data on their safety. They are also unregulated, you can put almost anything in an e-cigarette and smoke it.”
The health department has modified their youth smoking cessation program to include information on e-cigarettes, Bate said.
The SHARP survey, which is conducted every other year, includes data from all students in sixth to 12th grade in the district. In March 2015, 5,846 students took the survey, which has 150 questions and takes 50 minutes to complete.
The survey requires parental permission and respondents’ answers are anonymous. Teachers make a concerted effort to get permission slips returned by parents leading to a high participation rate, according to Bate.
The results of the survey are used by school and community prevention specialists to measure success, evaluate new trends that need to be addressed, and to apply for state and federal grants to fund prevention programs.