The University of Michigan’s C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll of Children’s Health has issued its fifth annual survey.  The poll ranks the top ten concerns and finds childhood obesity and drug abuse tied at 33% followed by smoking and tobacco use, teen pregnancy, bullying, Internet safety, stress, alcohol abuse, driving accidents and sexting.

Dr. Matthew Davis is director of the poll.  He says childhood obesity has been at the top of the list for several years running, but now drug abuse has joined it as a top health concern.  He says compared to the mid-1990s, drug abuse is substantially less. But he says in the last few years , the use of marijuana and other drugs has started creeping up again among youth, and this is a concern to the public.

Dr. Davis says public health and school campaigns have made a dent in youth smoking, but the public remains very concerned about tobacco use among youth.

Dr. Davis says when something is as widely available as the Internet or cell phones, parents need to grapple with what the risks can be from the new technologies.  He adds others are also concerned about Internet safety and sexting.

For African Americans, gun related injuries, school violence and unsafe neighborhoods replaced bullying, internet safety and stress on the list.  Hispanic adults listed child abuse and neglect as a top ten concern and sexting did not make their list.

Dr. Davis says it’s important that those in the medical, public health and public policy communities recognize how people from different backgrounds are seeing these problems.  He says if they’re getting a sense of what’s most important to people, they can focus their prevention efforts in those areas.