Adults' Top 10 Concerns About Kids
Adults' top concerns about U.S. children are smoking, teen
drug abuse, and childhood obesity, a new poll shows.
The National Poll on Children's Health included a nationally representative
group of 2,076 adults.
Knowledge Networks conducted the poll in March for the University of
Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.
Participants were asked to rate 17 different health concerns for children
living in their communities.
Here are their top 10 concerns and the percentage of participants rating
each concern as a "big problem." Participants could use the "big
problem" rating more than once.
- Smoking: 40%
- Teen drug abuse: 39%
- Childhood obesity: 34%
- Teen alcohol abuse: 33%
- Driving accidents: 29%
- Teen pregnancy: 28%
- Internet safety: 26%
- School violence: 24%
- Sexually transmitted infection: 24%
- Abuse and neglect: 22%
"Of note, ratings for the top 10 list did not differ between adults who
have children in their households and those who do not," states the poll
report.
The poll's seven other health concerns were psychological stress,
depression, eating disorders, suicide, autism, childhood cancer, and food
contamination.
Ratings varied somewhat. For instance, black adults rated teen pregnancy as
the top health concern, and adults with college degrees were more likely than
those with no college degree to rate childhood obesity as a top concern.
By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
B)2005-2006 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved