Child and Youth Health Data

• 43.4% of Health Unit (HU) region students reported fair or poor mental health which is similar to Ontario (38.1%) and Northern Ontario (38.4%) students (Figure 1).
• 57% of students in the HU region reported feeling connected to their school (responded somewhat agree or strongly agree to feeling safe in their school, close to people at the school and feeling like they are a part of the school) which is similar to that of Ontario (62.8%) and Northern Ontario (64.5%) students (Figure 2).
• 63.8% of students in the HU region reported being bullied at least once a month or more since the beginning of the school year which is higher than but not statistically different than 60.4% of Ontario students who were bullied (Figure 3). 44% of HU region students also reported online bullying, and 52.4% reported being teased or picked on about their weight at least once in the last 12 months.
• There were no regional differences in students reporting gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, religion or disability discrimination with 1 in 5 HU students reporting gender or sexual orientation discrimination and 4% reporting race/ethnicity, religion or disability discrimination (Figure 4). Gender and sexual orientation discrimination questions were only asked to secondary school students.
• Almost one half (48.3%) of HU region students met the criteria for moderate-to-serious psychological distress in the last month with female students being 1.8 times more likely to meet these criteria compared to males (63.3% versus 34.5%, respectively; Figure 5 & 6).

Figure 1. A graph comparing the percentage of students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North) and all of Ontario (ON) who reported their mental health as fair or poor.

Figure 3. A graph comparing the percentage of students who completed form A in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North) and all of Ontario (ON) who reported being bullied at least once a month or more since the beginning of the school year.

Figure 4. A graph comparing the percentage of students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North) and all of Ontario (ON) who reported perceived discrimination at school based on race/ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, or sexual orientation.

Figure 5. A graph comparing the percentage of students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North) and all of Ontario (ON) who reported feeling moderate-to-serious psychological distress in the last four weeks by scoring 8+ on the Kessler 6-item Psychological Distress Scale.

Figure 6. A graph comparing a subset of male and female students from the Health Unit region who scored 8 or more on the Kessler 6-item Psychological Distress Scale which indicates moderate-to-serious psychological distress.

Youth Health Behaviours and Physical Health

• 36.1% of HU students reported sleeping at least 8 hours on an average school night which is similar to Northern Ontario (42.7%) and Ontario (38.9%) students (Figure 1).
• 19.6% of HU students rated their physical health as either fair or poor which is similar to the 20.8% of Northern Ontario students and 18.1% of Ontario students who reported the same (Figure 2).
• 28% of HU students reported 7 days of physical activity in the last week which is similar to percentages in Northern Ontario (32.4%) and Ontario (25.5%; Figure 3).
• 53.9%, 41.8%, 30.9% and 42.4% of HU students reported worrying about weight, binging food, uncontrollable eating, and restricted eating, respectively. These percentages are similar to that of students in all of Ontario and Northern Ontario (Figure 4). Note, this includes worrying about weight sometimes, often or always, and binging food, eating uncontrollably, and restricting eating (not eat or eat in a way to change your weight, shape or muscles) at least once a month.
• 12.3% of HU students consumed a sugary drink at least once a day in the last 7 days and 45.4% consumed fruits and vegetables at least three times on an average day (Figure 5).
• 75.2% of HU region students reported three or more hours of screen time per day which was more than Northern Ontario students and slightly less than Ontario students but not statistically different (Figure 6).

Figure 2. A graph comparing the percentage of students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North) and all of Ontario (ON) who reported fair or poor self-rated physical health.

Figure 3. A graph comparing the percentage of students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North), and all of Ontario (ON) who reported at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day in the last week.

  

Figure 4. A graph comparing the percentage of students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North), and all of Ontario (ON) who reported disordered eating at least once or more over the last four weeks.

Figure 5. A graph comparing the percentage of students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North), and all of Ontario (ON) who reported consuming fruits and vegetables at least three times on an average day and sugary drinks once or more each day for the last seven days.

Figure 6. A graph comparing the percentage of students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North), and all of Ontario (ON) who reported three or more hours of screen time per day on average in the last seven days.

Youth Substance Use

• Students from the HU region were significantly more likely to report trying electronic cigarettes (vaping), alcohol, and tobacco cigarettes in their lifetime than Ontario students (36%, 64.2%, 15% versus 25%, 52.5%, 9% respectively; Figure 1).
• HU students were more likely to report trying alcohol in their lifetime than any other substance, followed by e-cigarettes, cannabis, and tobacco (Figure 1). In the 12 months prior to the survey, 49.2%, 20.4%, 22.4%, and 5.5% of HU students also reported using alcohol, e-cigarettes, cannabis, and tobacco at least once, respectively.
• The highest percentage (17.8%) of HU students reported drinking alcohol for the first time in grades 4-6, which is higher than but not statistically different than Ontario or Northern students. Alcohol initiation was more likely to occur in earlier grades compared to cannabis and vaping that had highest proportions in nineth grade (Figure 2). This graph excludes those who selected that they have not tried the substance and percentages that had a coefficient of variation over 33.33.
• In the HU region, 17.3% of high school students scored eight or higher on the AUDIT scale which indicates harmful/hazardous drinking, this is higher than but not statistically different than Ontario (12.6%) and Northern (11.2%) students (Figure 3). Only students from grades 9 to 12 who answered all ten questions are included.
• HU region students were just as likely to report trying ADHD medication (non-medically), prescription opioids (non-medically), cold/cough medication to get high, hallucinogens (magic mushrooms) as Ontario students, but more likely to report trying tranquilizers/sedatives (Figure 4 & 5).

Figure 1. A graph comparing the percentage of students from the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), and Ontario (ON) who reported trying tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, and e-cigarettes at least once in their lifetime.

Figure 2. A graph comparing the percentage of students from the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region who reported the grade they first tried alcohol (more than a few sips), cannabis, or vaping.

Figure 3. A graph comparing the percentage of students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North), and all of Ontario (ON) who scored eight or higher on the AUDIT scale that indicates harmful/hazardous drinking.

Figure 4. A graph comparing the percentage of students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit (HU) and Ontario (ON) who reported trying ADHD medication (non-medically), prescription opioids (non-medically) without a personal prescription, and cold/cough medication to get high at least once in their lifetime.

Figure 5. A graph comparing the percentage of high school students in the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit region (HU), Northern Ontario (North), and all of Ontario (ON) who reported trying hallucinogens (magic mushrooms) and tranquillizers/sedatives (non-medically) at least once in their lifetime.