Researchers surveyed a cross section of high school students from an urban Midwestern county and assessed whether use of communication technology like texting or Facebook could be associated with poor health behaviors, including smoking, drinking and sexual activity.
They found 19.8% of the teens surveryed who "hyper-text, or send more than 120 texts per school day, were more 40% more likely to have tried cigarettes, two times more likely to have tried alcohol, 43% more likely to be binge drinkers, 41% more likely to have used illicit drugs, 55% more likely to have been in a physical fight, nearly three-and-a-half times more likely to have had sex and 90% more likely to report four or more sexual partners.
Additionally, 11.5% of the teens surveyed "hyper-network -- spending more than three hours per school day on social networking websites -- and associate with higher odds ratios for stress, depression, suicide, substance use, fighting, poor sleep, poor academics, television watching and parental permissiveness.
Teens who are hyper-networkers are 62% more likely to have tried cigarettes, 79% more likely to have tried alcohol, 69% more likely to be binge drinkers, 84% more likely to have used illicit drugs, 94% more likely to have been in a physical fight, 69% more likely to have had sex and 60% more likely to report four or more sexual partners.
"The startling results of this study suggest that when left unchecked, texting and other widely popular methods of staying connected can have dangerous health effects on teenagers," said Scott Frank, MD, MS, lead researcher on the study and director of the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine Master of Public Health program.
"This should be a wake-up call for parents to not only help their children stay safe by not texting and driving, but by discouraging excessive use of the cell phone or social websites in general."
