As the grade goes up, the health indicators of Korean adolescents are generally deteriorating. In pa..

As the grade goes up, the health indicators of Korean adolescents are generally deteriorating. In particular, in the case of second-year high school girls, the use of liquid e-cigarettes surpassed that of general cigarettes for the first time.

According to the “Youth Health Panel Survey (2025) Final Results Report” released by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the 29th, major health behaviors such as smoking, drinking, eating, and physical activity tended to gradually deteriorate as the grade went up. This survey is a long-term project that builds a panel of 5051 students who were in the sixth grade of elementary school in 2019 and tracks them every year for a total of 10 years after graduating from high school.

The report contains the results of a precise analysis of data until the sixth year (2024, the second year of high school), when the actual survey was completed in the seventh year of the survey.

The most worrisome part is the change in smoking behavior. The “lifelong experience rate” of using cigarettes at least once in a lifetime was only 0.35% in the sixth grade of elementary school, but it increased to 9.59% in the second year of high school (the sixth year) after 3.93% in the third year of middle school and 6.83% in the first year of high school.

In particular, in the “current usage rate” of second-year high school girls, liquid e-cigarettes accounted for 1.54%, outpacing general cigarettes (1.33%) for the first time. This shows that e-cigarettes are being accepted relatively less repulsed than regular cigarettes among adolescents, especially female students.

The drinking experience has also increased dramatically. The drinking experience rate of “based on fundraising” who has drunk even one or two sips in his life was 60.8%, indicating that 6 out of 10 panelists have already tasted alcohol. The experience rate of “by glass” who drank more than one drink also reached 33.7%. The point to note is when drinking begins. As a result of the analysis, the new drinking experience rate was the highest at 15.6% at the time of promotion to the first year of middle school. Figures have confirmed that the environmental change from elementary school to middle school is the most vulnerable time to the temptation of harmful drugs.

Physical health indicators also showed a risk level. The rate of skipping breakfast more than five days a week increased by 4.0 percentage points year-on-year to 33.0%. On the other hand, the intake of fruits, vegetables, milk, and dairy products decreased all at once, deepening the nutritional imbalance. Only 13.5% of students practice physical activity more than 60 minutes a day, and the chronic problem of increasing learning time and decreasing exercise time has been confirmed once again as the grade increases.

Mental health indicators also have warning lights. The smartphone dependence experience rate reached 35.1%, and the rate of moderate or higher anxiety disorders was 8.0%. It is analyzed that academic burden and lifestyle changes have a negative impact on mental health.

It was found that the influence of the surrounding environment played a significant role in such changes in health behavior. As a result of the analysis of the preceding factors, the probability of starting harmful behavior was significantly higher if the friend’s attitude toward smoking and drinking was permissive or if there was a friend who smoked or drank nearby. When there are smokers or drinkers in the household, and the more parents show an acceptable attitude toward their children’s drinking, the more their children tend to encounter alcohol and cigarettes at an earlier time.

Based on the results of the 7th year survey, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to track the changes in the remaining three years until adolescents become adults more precisely. Even though it is a long-term project, the panel maintenance rate reaches 80.7%, which is expected to be an important basis for identifying the causal relationship between adolescent health habits on adult health.

An official from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, “The results of this survey are key basic data for policy establishment and system improvement to help adolescents grow into healthy adults,” adding, “As adolescent health habits determine lifelong health, integrated efforts by schools, families and communities are needed.”