New Fact Sheets on Health Behaviors and Academic Achievement

August 21, 2008 - New fact sheets recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show possible associations between certain health behaviors and academic achievement.

The fact sheets showcase various health behaviors and their relationship to academic achievement including: tobacco use; alcohol and other drug use; physical inactivity and unhealthy weight control; unintentional injury and violence-related behaviors; and sexual risk behaviors.  A sixth fact sheet provides a general overview of the association between health-risk behaviors and academic achievement.

Although the CDC emphasizes that the associations portrayed in the fact sheets do not prove “causation” and that further research is needed to determine the relationship between grades and certain health behaviors, the fact sheets highlight intriguing data.

For instance, the sexual risk behaviors fact sheet reveals that data from the 2003 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) show a negative association between sexual risk behaviors and academic achievement after controlling for sex, race/ethnicity, and grade level.  This means that students with higher grades are less likely to engage in sexual risk behaviors than their classmates with lower grades.  In turn, students who do not engage in sexual risk behaviors receive higher grades than their classmates who do engage in sexual risk behaviors.

The physical activity fact sheet also shows interesting figures.  For example, students with higher grades are significantly less likely to have insufficient vigorous physical activity and watch television 3 or more hours per day.  In addition, the tobacco use fact sheet reveals that students with higher grades are significantly less likely to report lifetime and current cigarette use.

To learn more about the relationship between health and academic achievement, please visit CDC’s Student Health and Academic Achievement webpage at http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/health_and_academics/index.htm.  You can find all of the fact sheets within that webpage.  To learn more about the importance of school health programs for student learning, please visit NSBA’s School Health Programs at www.nsba.org/schoolhealth.

Source:  CDC's Student Health and Academic Achievement webpage, including all fact sheets within the page.