"Sexual minority students, particularly gay, lesbian, and bisexual students and students who had sexual contact with both sexes, are more likely to engage in health-risk behaviors than other students."-- From "More Risky Behaviors Among Gay, Bisexual High School Students: CDC" by HealthDay News 6/6/11
-- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
One of the first and largest national studies of the behaviors of American high school students finds that those who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual are more likely than their heterosexual peers to take unhealthy risks.
The data comes from the national Youth Risk Behavior Surveys conducted over the past decade in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin and in six large urban school districts -- Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York City, San Diego and San Francisco.
The CDC found that gay or lesbian students' had higher prevalence rates for seven of the 10 health risk categories -- violence, attempted suicide, smoking, drinking, other drug use, risky sexual behaviors and weight management issues. Findings were similar for bisexual students, the agency said.
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From "CDC study: Gay, bisexual teens do riskier things" by Mike Stobbe, Medical Writer, Associated Press 6/6/11
Based on anonymous surveys of 156,000 high school students, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study is the largest by the government to look at sexual orientation and behavior in teens. It echoes similar findings in some smaller studies.
The surveys are from 2001 through 2009.
The results are not considered nationally representative, but the research is larger and more geographically diverse than past studies. Kann presented the findings at a first-ever Department of Education summit for lesbian, gay and bisexual youth in Washington.
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