The 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data has been released on HHDW.org and HawaiiHealthMatters.org. Explore Hawaiʻi’s high school and middle school students’ health-related behaviors across 6 categories: unintentional injuries and violence, sexual behaviors, alcohol and other drug use, tobacco use, unhealthy dietary behaviors, and inadequate physical activity. Get data at the state and county level for more than 185 indicators for high school and 154 indicators for middle school students.
Highlights from the 2023 YRBS data in Hawaiʻi:
High School
- More than 1 in 3 (34.9%) students report depression lasting 2 weeks or more in the past 12 months. There are significant differences by sex, with 46.2% of girls reporting depression compared to 24.2% of boys.
- There was a significant decrease in current electronic vapor product use among students, from 30.6% in 2019 to 13.2% in 2023. Among students who ever used electronic vapor products, the majority reported the main reason for use was curiosity (33.0%), followed by feeling anxious, stressed, or depressed (25.2%), and friend or family use (17.7%).
- The percentage of students who wear sunscreen most or all of the time when outside increased significantly from 12.4% in 2019 to 19.1% in 2023. Females were significantly more likely to wear sunscreen than males (27.9% vs 10.7%).
Middle School
- 28.4% of students met aerobic physical activity guidelines, a significant increase from 24.0% in 2019.
- Almost half (42.2%) of students spent 5 or more hours on screens per day, while only 7.2% spent less than 1 hour per day.
- The percentage of students who reported having an adult they can talk to about important things at home or school decreased significantly from 79.8% in 2019 to 73.8% in 2023.
Here is a link to a custom HHM dashboard with all the YRBS indicators by state. Below are links to custom HHM dashboards for YRBS data for each county.
