US Teen Substance Use: A True/False Quiz
Find out how much you know about substance use among US high school students with our 9-question true/false quiz based on the 2019 CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey results.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released results of the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey which monitors priority health risks and experiences among youth across the US including sexual risk behaviors, mental health, tobacco use, and more.
In the 9 questions below, we focus on the update addressing 4 current (ie, previous 30 days) and 7 lifetime substance use behaviors among high school students (grades 9-12) between 2009-2019. The 4 current substance use behaviors were marijuana, alcohol, binge, drinking, and prescription opioid misuse; 7 lifetime behaviors were marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, injection drug use, synthetic marijuana, and prescription opioid misuse.
Have prevalence rates decreased? Take the quiz for key results.
Question 1. True or false? Among current substance use measures, the highest prevalence estimates were for alcohol and marijuana use.
Answer: A. True. Among current substance use measures, the highest prevalence estimates were for alcohol (29.2%) and marijuana use (21.7%). Approximately 13% of youth reported current binge drinking and 7.2% reported current prescription opioid misuse.
Question 2. True or false? Nearly three-quarters (72%)of youth reported lifetime marijuana use.
Answer: B. False. Among lifetime use measures, marijuana use was reported by 36.8% of youth, followed by prescription opioid misuse (14.3%), synthetic marijuana use (7.3%), and cocaine use (3.9%).
Question 3. True or false? Current alcohol, lifetime cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and injection drug use among youth increased between 2009-2019.
Answer: B. False. Current alcohol, lifetime cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and injection drug use among youth decreased between 2009-2019.
Question 4. True or false? Men had substantially higher rates of lifetime cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and injection drug use vs women.
Answer: A. True. Compared to women, men had a significantly higher prevalence of lifetime use of cocaine (4.9% vs 2.7%), methamphetamine (2.7% vs 1.5%), heroin (2.3% vs 1.0%), and injection drug use (2.1% vs 1.1%).
Compared to men, however, women had a significantly higher prevalence of current alcohol use (31.9% vs 26.4%) and binge drinking (14.6% vs 12.7%).
Question 5. True or false? Students who identified as not sure of their sexual identity had higher prevalence of approximately half of the substance use behaviors vs those who identified as heterosexual.
Answer: A. True. Students who identified as not sure of their sexual identity had higher prevalence of approximately half of the substance use behaviors vs those who identified as heterosexual, including current prescription opioid misuse, lifetime cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, injection drug use, and prescription opioid misuse.
Question 6. True or false? Students who identified as LGB had a higher prevalence of binge drinking vs those who identified as heterosexual.
Answer: B. False. Students who identified as LGB had a higher prevalence of all substance use behaviors, except binge drinking, vs those who identified as heterosexual.
Question 7. True or false? Among 2946 youth who reported current marijuana use, approximately 1 in 5 reported using it ≥40 times.
Answer: A. True. Among the 2946 youth who reported current marijuana use, 18% reported using it ≥40 times, 23.5% said 10-39 times, 21.8% said 3-9 times, and 36.7% said 1-2 times.
Question 8. True or false? Among 200 youth who had ever injected drugs, less than one-quarter reported injecting drugs 1 time.
Answer: B. False. Among the 1.2% of youth who had ever injected drugs, 47.8% reported injecting drugs 1 time, and 52.2% reported injecting drugs ≥2 times.
Question 9. True or false? Compared to white youth, black and Hispanic youth were significantly less likely to have engaged in current prescription opioid misuse.
Answer: B. False. In adjusted analyses, black and Hispanic youth were significantly more likely to have engaged in current prescription opioid misuse (black, aPR: 1.49; 95% CI, 1.05-2.10; Hispanic, aPR: 1.52; 95% CI, 1.12-2.05) vs white youth (referent group).
