Child health concerns shift toward focus on sexting, Internet safety

Public opinions on the major health concerns facing children today have shifted toward viewing Internet safety and sexting as more of a threat than smoking and school violence, according to survey results published by the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.

“The major health issues that people are most worried about for children across the country reflect the health initiatives providers, communities and policymakers should be focused on,” Matthew, M. Davis, MD, MAPP, director of the National Poll on Children’s Health, said in a press release. “The increasing level of concern about Internet safety and sexting that are now ranked even higher than smoking as major childhood health issues really dominates the story this year.”

Matthew, M. Davis

Researchers polled 1,982 randomly selected adults aged 18 years or older in May. Participants were asked to identify which potential health concerns they felt should be labeled as “big problems.” Participants also were presented with statistical information after their first response was given on specific issues, such as hunger and infant mortality; the same questions were again posed to participants after this information was presented.

Survey results showed that there was no change in the top three big problems between the 2014 survey and the current survey. Childhood obesity ranked first with 60% of respondents feeling it was a big problem. Bullying ranked second with 58%, and drug abuse ranked third with 53%.

The biggest changes noted between the 2014 and 2015 survey were the shift from concern about school violence and smoking to Internet safety and sexting. Internet safety rose from being the eighth largest concern in 2014 to the fourth largest concern in 2015, with 51% of respondents feeling it was a big problem. Similarly, sexting rose from its 2014 rank of 13th to the sixth largest concern in 2015. Only 45% of respondents reported smoking as a big problem, which resulted in smoking falling from fourth to seventh on the list.

Researchers noted that providing respondents with information on the health effects of a specific concern affected the amount of concern recorded for that issue. For example, initially only 34% of respondents reported hunger as a big problem; however, after statistical information was presented, that number grew to 54%.

“We found this year that providing information about the number of children affected by specific health problems can change how the public perceives them,” Davis and colleagues wrote. “This suggests that levels of public concern may be affected by providing reliable information in a format that is easy to understand.”

To view the report, visit http://mottnpch.org/sites/default/files/documents/081015_top10.pdf – by David Costill

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.