{"id":28424,"date":"2025-08-28T09:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T09:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/28424\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T09:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T09:37:11","slug":"new-study-finds-alarming-trends-in-teen-health-from-exercise-to-diet-and-screen-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/28424\/","title":{"rendered":"New study finds alarming trends in teen health, from exercise to diet and screen time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">When a cheeseburger costs less than a box of strawberries, it is no surprise that teenagers are reaching more for fast food than fresh fruit.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But a new study led by the University of South Australia warns that it is not just diet causing concern. Teens are increasingly caught in a cycle of unhealthy lifestyle habits that could have long-term effects on their health.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The study, which analysed data from more than 293,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 across 73 countries and five World Health Organization regions, found alarming trends in teenage behaviour:<\/p>\n<p>Taken together, more than 92.5 per cent of teenagers had two or more unhealthy behaviours, placing them at greater risk of developing chronic conditions such as <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3319811\/will-your-child-become-obese-adult-new-tool-identifies-those-genetically-risk?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">obesity<\/a>, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3286211\/9-crucial-facts-about-diabetes-worrying-trends-and-how-avoid-it-diabesity?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">diabetes<\/a>, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3299448\/heart-disease-doesnt-have-run-family-good-habits-can-keep-your-heart-healthy?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">heart disease<\/a> and poor <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/health-wellness\/article\/3271098\/how-youth-gen-z-hit-mental-health-issues-take-charge-and-advocate-their-peers?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">mental health<\/a> in adulthood.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In fact, only a tiny fraction \u2013 less than 1 per cent \u2013 reported no unhealthy behaviours at all.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The study found about 32 per cent of teens spent too much time on screens. Photo: Shutterstock\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/f5944993-aafc-4ebf-a0df-7be0bc0caf10_0954db92.jpg\" title=\"The study found about 32 per cent of teens spent too much time on screens. Photo: Shutterstock\"\/>The study found about 32 per cent of teens spent too much time on screens. Photo: ShutterstockThe clustering effect<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Researchers described this as a \u201cclustering of unhealthy habits\u201d, where teens are not just struggling with one risk factor, but often two, three or more. According to the study:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a cheeseburger costs less than a box of strawberries, it is no surprise that teenagers are reaching&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[1128,18,22888,135,19,17,22892,3119,22886,22887,172,878,9298,1999,1002,22889,22884,6663,22890,22891,22885,22883],"class_list":{"0":"post-28424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-fast-food","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-ministry-of-health","15":"tag-new","16":"tag-not-enough-exercise","17":"tag-not-enough-fruits-and-vegetables","18":"tag-research","19":"tag-scmp-lifestyle","20":"tag-screen-time","21":"tag-singapore","22":"tag-study","23":"tag-sugary-drinks","24":"tag-teen-health","25":"tag-teenagers","26":"tag-the-united-states","27":"tag-unhealthy-behaviours","28":"tag-unhealthy-lifestyle-habits","29":"tag-university-of-south-australia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}