YRBS Data Release Notes

General Release Notes

2023 YRBS

Suppression Criteria Revision

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed the cell suppression rule for YRBS. Previously, at least 100 students must have responded to a survey item in order for the estimate to be reported. The threshold has now been reduced to 30 or more students. This new suppression criterion was introduced to HHDW.org with the 2023 data but has been applied to all years of YRBS data in the warehouse. While this new standard will allow more data to be displayed, not all of it will stable. Therefore, users should consult the statistical stability column and interpret unstable estimates with a relative standard error (RSE) between 0.30-0.50 with caution. Very unstable estimates with an RSE greater than 0.50 should not be used to inform decision making.

Race/Ethnicity Data

HHDW has been working on standardizing the category descriptions and display order across data sets. The new display order for DOH Race/Ethnicity is:

American Indian or Alaska Native
Black
Chinese
Filipino
Japanese
Other Asian
Native Hawaiian
Other Pacific Islander
White
Other

The display order for Census Race has also been changed to:

American Indian or Alaska Native
Asian
Black or African American
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
White
Other

New indicators added in 2023

Demographics

Sexual orientation (5 categories) (2021+)
Sexual orientation by sex (M/F) (2021+)
Sexual or gender minority students (2021+)

General Health

Mental health - not good, past 30 days

Injury and Violence

Witnessed - physical violence in neighborhood, ever

Physical Activity and Nutrition

Nutrition - juice, sports or energy drink, 1+ per day, past 7 days (2021+)
Nutrition - avg juice drink per day (2021+)
Nutrition - avg SSB per day (2021+)
Nutrition - any food allergies
Physical activity - walk or bike to school
Physical activity - transport to school
Physical activity - do not walk/bike to school for safety
Physical activity - main reason do not walk/bike to school
Screentime - 3+ hours on school days (2021+)
Screentime - hours per school day (2021+)

Sexual Behaviors and Education

Sex - parents discussed birth control
Sexual health - needed services, past 12 months
Sexual health - used guide find services, past 12 months

Social Support

School - received additional services, past 12 months

Substance Use

Alcohol - in a car with drinking driver, ever
Cigarettes - menthol, current use
Electronic vapor product - daily use
Electronic vapor product - main reason
Electronic vapor product - main reason, flavors
Electronic vapor product - usual source
Electronic vapor product - usual source, Internet
Electronic vapor product - usual source, retailer
Electronic vapor product - usual source, social
SHS - home, past 7 days
Tobacco cessation - tried to quit, past 12 months

New dimensions added in 2023

Dimensions are characteristics in the system that users can use to examine health indicators. Previously, users could examine YRBS data by survey year, state or county geography and student sex, grade in school, race/ethnicity (3 dimension), Hispanic or Latino ancestry, and sexual and gender identity (4 dimensions). With the 2023 data we've added academic grades, current cigarette or electronic vapor product use, and having at least one active duty military parent. Furthermore, in 2021 the sexual orientation question responses changed. Accordingly, 3 new sexual and gender minority dimensions have been added with the 2023 data load. See HHDW Sexual and Gender Minority Documenation for more details. Here is the list of new dimensions.

Cigarette or elec vapor product - current use (2015+)
Grades - in school
Military - parent on active duty (2017+)
Sexual orientation (2021+)
Sexual orientation by sex (2021+)
Sexual or gender minority (2021+)

2021 YRBS

Users should be aware that the 2021 data may be different from previous years for a few reasons. This is the first assessment since the pandemic and students likely had very different experiences in the past two years than previous cohorts. The survey was administered in the fall instead of the spring. Therefore, the students were younger and earlier in their school year, which may affect their experiences. When asked about the previous 12 months, it is likely that a good portion of those months involved full or partial online schooling. This difference in environment may also affect their responses.

The timing of the survey administration may also affect cross-year comparisons. Usually the cohort in 6th grade in one administration will be in 8th grade at the next, then 10th and 12th. However, students in 6th grade in spring 2019 were in 9th grade by fall 2021. So, the middle school cohort, in particular, is entirely new in 2021. Students who were in 9th grade in spring 2019 would be first semester 12th graders in 2021.

Race/Ethnicity Data

HHDW has been working on standardizing the category descriptions across data sets. As part of this standardization the category for "White" has been made the standard category title, replacing "Caucasian" in some data sets. Also, a standard description of "American Indian or Alaska Native" has been set to replace a variety of category names. See the table below for the updated mapping of Program Race/Ethnicity, DOH Race/Ethnicity and Census Race.

Sexual Orientation

The sexual orientation question changed in 2021 and is no longer comparable to previous years or trendable. We have included the new mapping in the HHDW Sexual and Gender Minority Documentation document and will be releasing the new variables with the 2023 data once 2 years of data are available. Since the 2023 survey is currently underway, we anticipate release of the 2023 data in early 2024.

New YRBS indicators in 2021

There are several new indicators available:

Grades - in school
High school - will complete
Education after high school - definitely/probably will
Weight - student description
Oral health - missed school, past 12 months
Sex/Phys abuse - by partner, past 12 months
Physical abuse - perpetrator, past 12 months
Nutrition - avg SSB per day
Physical activity - in regular school classes
PE class - active at least half of time
PE class - offered a variety of activities
Sex - birth control method last time
Sex (ever) - alcohol/drug use before last time
STD - education in school, ever
Alcohol - type most often drank
Drug use - marijuana, how consumed, past 30 days (2019+)
Drug use - prescription pain drugs without md, curr

2019 YRBS

In 2019, we retired indicators based on questions that had not been asked since 2011. If you are interested in data only collected prior to 2011 please contact profiles@hhdw.org.

A new Demographics category

We introduced a new demographics category in this release. This section allows users to view detailed information about the YRBS population.

New dimensions are now available

Hispanic - students who are Hispanic or Latino, yes/no, high school and middle school, all years.
Sexual orientation - straight, gay or lesbian, bisexual and not sure, for high school 2011-2019 and middle school 2017-2019.
Sexual orientation by sex (M/F) - straight males, straight females, gay or bisexual males, lesbian or bisexual females, not sure males, and not sure females, for high school 2011-2019 and middle school 2017-2019.
Transgender - yes/no, for high school 2017-2019.
Sexual or gender minority - students who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, not sure or transgender, yes/no for high school 2017-2019.

New YRBS indicators in 2019

There are several new indicators available:

County
Sex
Grade
Hispanic or Latino
DOH Race/ethnicity
Census Race/ethnicity
Transgender
Sexual or gender minority
Military - parent on active duty
Weight control - unhealthy methods, past 30 days
Missed school - sick, past 30 days
Missed school - number of sick days, past 30 days
Mental health - mental distress
Mental health - get needed help
Suicide - attempt result in injury/tx, ever
Bullied - on school property or electronically, ever
Bullied - on school property or electronically, past 12 months
Sexual abuse - by partner, past 12 months
Injury - concussion, past 12 months
Injury - number of concussions, past 12 months
Sexual abuse - by anyone, past 12 months
Nutrition - avg soda per day
Nutrition - avg juice drink per day
Physical Activity - active transport to/from school, avg days
Sex - parents discussed how to say no
Support - adult outside of school
Sleep - usually at home, past 30 days
Sleep - place usually slept, past 30 days
Support - adult who really cares at school
Alcohol - binge drinking (new) (HS)
Alcohol - parents think student drinking is wrong
Substance abuse - in car when driver high, ever
Drug use - prescription pain drugs without md, ever
Drug use - ever used illicit drugs - (2017+)
Cigarettes - first puff before age 13
Electronic vapor product - frequent use
Electronic vapor product - tried before age 13
Cigarette or elec vapor product - use, past 30 days

2015 YRBS

In accordance with recent legislation, there was a change in survey implementation in 2015 whereby student participation changed from active parental consent to active parental refusal. This change yielded greater participation among middle and high school students.

2011 YRBS

While the YRBS has always collected data from schools across Hawaiʻi, the sampling frame was increased in this survey year to yield county-level estimates for middle school and high school. School and student participation in Hawaiʻi County high schools did not meet the minimum participation requirement (60%) to allow for weighting of the high school data. Therefore, high school level data is available for the state only for 2011. High school county level data is not available until 2013. Middle school county level data is available starting in 2011.

All Years

For more information on the number of students surveyed each year and links to the survey instruments, please click here.

Health indicators are created after a question has been included in at least 2 survey administrations. Survey items do not have to be asked on consecutive administrations to create a health indicator. Health indicators are retired when their underlying questions have not been asked for 4 administrations.

Race/Ethnicity Data

Students are asked two questions to ascertain their race/ethnicity:

Are you Hispanic or Latino? This question is used to create the Hispanic or Latino indicator and dimension.
What is your race?

These questions are used to create the Race/ Ethnicity classifications. In HHDW, the most granular level is the program race/ethnicity (PRG) which rolls up into the DOH standard race/ethnicity (DOH), which rolls up into Census race reporting categories (Census). The table below illustrates how the data is aggregated.

Race/Ethnicity Classifications
Source Race/Ethnicity	Program Race/Ethnicity (PRG)	DOH Race/Ethnicity (DOH)	Census Race (Census)
Am Indian/ Alaska Native	American Indian or Alaska Native	American Indian or Alaska Native	American Indian or Alaska Native
Black or African American	Black	Black	Black or African American
Filipino	Filipino	Filipino	Asian
Hispanic/ Latino	Other	Other	Other
Japanese	Japanese	Japanese	Asian
Multiple - non-Hispanic	Other	Other	Other
Other Asian	Other Asian	Other Asian	Asian
Other Pacific Islander	Other Pacific Islander	Other Pacific Islander	Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
Native Hawaiian/ Part Hawaiian	Hawaiian/ Part Hawaiian	Native Hawaiian	Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
White	White	White	White

Cell Suppression

According to CDC guidelines, a minimum of 100 students must answer a question in order for it to be reported. Where the number of students is below 100, ** will appear in the data table and no data will be displayed for that cell in the chart. We suggest that you aggregate years or reduce the number of filters to achieve a reportable result.

Documentation

Documentation is available here to describe how we collect and map race/ethnicity, geography, and sexual orientation.

HHDW Race/Ethnicity Documentation

HHDW Geography Documentation

HHDW Sexual and Gender Minority Documentation