Boys and girls and healthy behaviour

The Canadian component of a multinational study that gathers information on the behaviour of schoolchildren when it comes to health risks has found some significant differences between boys and girls.

The Health Canada report Trends in the Health of Canadian Youth, based on data collected through the 1989/90, 1993/94 and 1997/98 survey cycles for the World Health Organization, found that in 1998 Canadian boys in Grade 10 were more likely than girls to drink soft drinks daily (60% versus 44%). Boys, however, were also more likely to eat breakfast daily (55% versus 41%), and far less likely either to be on a diet or to feel that they needed to lose weight (18% versus 45%). Grade 10 students of both sexes were roughly equally inclined to eat fruits or vegetables daily (62% of boys, 65% of girls).

Although Grade 10 boys were much more likely than girls to exercise outside of school at least twice a week in 1998 (75% versus 54%), they were also slightly more inclined to watch more than 4 hours of television a day (23% versus 19%), and much more likely to play computer games for more than four hours per week (35% compared with 5%). Sixty-six percent of Grade 10 girls had tried smoking, compared with 61% of boys, and 23% smoked daily, compared with 17% of boys.

Grade 10 boys and girls were equally likely to have tried alcohol (93% and 92%), and to have been "really drunk" at least twice (43% for both sexes). Boys, however, were almost twice as likely as girls to drink beer at least once per week (18% versus 10%). Boys and girls were almost equally likely to have tried marijuana (44% and 41%). The latter numbers are substantially higher than they were in 1990, when only 26% of boys and 24% of girls admitted to having tried marijuana.

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