Get Vaccinated Report Abuse/Neglect Sign up for E-news! Reproductive Health 988: 24/7 LIfeline
NMDOH Logo
Home News High School Students Less Likely to Binge Drink
Kenny Vigil
505-841-5871 Office
505-470-2290 Mobile

High School Students Less Likely to Binge Drink


Intoxicated youth collapsing on the floor with empty bottle of alcohol in hand.

In 2013, New Mexico high school students were less likely to binge drink than their counterparts across the United States (17.1% vs. 20.8%), according to results from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today. While New Mexico students were less likely to binge drink by comparison, they were more likely to have their first drink of alcohol before the age of 13 (22.3% vs. 18.6%).

In addition to information about youth alcohol use, the national YRBS and the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (YRRS) provide information about youth risk behaviors related to health, such as nutrition, physical activity, tobacco use, drug use, violence, unintentional injury, mental health, and sexual activity.

Further results from these two surveys indicate that New Mexico students were more likely than US students to get 60 minutes of physical activity every day (31.1% vs. 27.1%), and were less likely to watch three or more hours of television daily (26.4% vs. 32.5%).

The New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey is a tool to assess the health risk behaviors and resiliency factors of New Mexico high school and middle school students.

Compared to US students, New Mexico students were more likely to have ever used drugs such as cocaine (10.3% vs. 5.5%) or methamphetamines (5.0% vs. 3.2%), but were less likely to be sexually active (26.8% vs. 34.0%).

New Mexico specific results are being released in a new series of newsletters called "YRRS Connections," the first of which is being released today by the New Mexico Department of Health, the New Mexico Public Education Department, and the UNM Prevention Research Center. This newsletter highlights downward trends in high school risk behaviors over the past several years, including:

  • Binge drinking (drinking five or more alcoholic drinks on a single occasion in the past 30 days) - decreased from 35.4% in 2003 to 17.1% in 2013;
  • Current cigarette smoking (smoking cigarettes on at least one of the past 30 days) - decreased from 30.2% in 2003 to 14.4% in 2013;
  • Physical fighting in the past 12 months - decreased from 38.9% in 2003 to 27.2% in 2013; and
  • Current use of painkillers to get high - decreased from 14.2% in 2009 to 8.5% in 2013.

The New Mexico YRRS and the national YRBS are both part of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, and New Mexico results are directly comparable to national results. The New Mexico YRRS is a joint project of the New Mexico Department of Health and the Public Education Department, with technical assistance from the UNM Prevention Research Center and the CDC Division of Adolescent and School Health.

The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System monitors six types of health-risk behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death and disability among youth and adults.

In addition to the results released by the CDC and in the YRRS Connections, more detailed reports about these surveys will be will be available at the Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey website and also on Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey section of our website.

National and other state results are available from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey website.


Media Contact

We would be happy to provide additional information about this press release. Simply contact Kenny Vigil at 505-841-5871 (Office) or 505-470-2290 (Mobile) with your questions.