Miami-Dade Youth Risk Behavior Survey Essay

Defining the Community

The type of population that is being assessed is a Pediatric aggregate. The population used for the community assessment is school-age children in grades 9 through 12. The community is the Miami-Dade County that is a south-eastern part of Florida State. According to the United States Census Bureau, the population of the county in July 2015 was 2,693,117 (United States Census Bureau, 2016). This makes it the most populous county of the state. It is the third Florida County in terms of its area, which is around 1,946 square miles (United States Census Bureau, 2016). The population per square mile in 2010 was 1,315.5 (United States Census Bureau, 2016). The total number of the county’s population has grown over the period from 2000 to 2007 for its 13 cities, with the exception of Miami, Hialeah and Miami Beach (Department of Planning, 2016). It is estimated by the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic research that the population of Miami-Dade County that is under 18 years of age was 21,9% in 2010 (Florida Legislature Office, 2016). According to the United States Census Bureau the share of school-age children and young people under 18 has decreased by 1,4% to 20,5% in the period of 5 years (United States Census Bureau, 2016). The estimated number of the target population is 552,088 (United States Census Bureau, 2016). Miami-Dade Youth Risk Behavior Survey Essay. This paper will identify and assess some of the health-risk behaviors of the Miami-Dade population under 18 years of age. These behaviors include unintentional injuries and violence, tobacco use, alcohol and other substance use.

Youth Risk Behavior Survey

The analysis used data from Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) conducted in 2015 that measured risk behaviors among students from ninth to twelfth grades. The sample included all public and private schools of the Florida State. The overall response survey rate was 64, 5% and was completed by 6, 876 students (Florida Health, 2016). The assessment used data for the Miami-Dade County.Miami-Dade Youth Risk Behavior Survey Essay

Unintentional Injuries and Violence

The number of students who reported that they never or rarely wore a bicycle helmet was 90,4%, while the rates for those who rarely or never wore a seat belt was 8,7% (CDC, 2015a). The study indicates that participants are very likely to use mobile phones while driving. The rates of those who texted or e-mailed while driving a vehicle during the last 30 days prior to data collection were 32,3% (CDC, 2015a). 2,4 % of students reported to have carried a gun or a knife on school property (CDC, 2015a). Physical dating violence such as being hit, intentionally injured with a blunt object or a weapon by someone they were going out with was experienced by 7,4 % (CDC, 2015a). The rates for sexual dating violence were around 8,2% (CDC, 2015a).

Tobacco Use

The survey showed that nearly quarter of the respondents (22,3%) ever tried smoking a cigarette (CDC, 2015a). The proportion of the population smoking cigarettes at the time of the survey was 5,4% (CDC, 2015a). The research showed that less than 1% of students smoked cigarettes daily, during the 30 days before the survey (CDC, 2015a). When asked whether they tried to quit smoking, more than half of the respondents (59,9%) reported that they did not. ( CDC, 2016). Around 40% of the students used electronic vapor products (CDC, 2015a).Miami-Dade Youth Risk Behavior Survey Essay