Pulse
Boys and girls and healthy behaviour

CMAJ 2000;162:1603

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. — Shelley Martin, martis@cma.ca

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