PARENTS IDENTIFY HEALTH TOPICS THEY WANT DOCTORS TO DISCUSS WITH KIDS – NEW RESEARCH FOR UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CONDUCTED BY KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS

Report cites diet/nutrition as leading issue; exercise, physical changes, drug use also rank highly

Menlo Park, February 6, 2008: The most recent report from the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health (NPCH) identifies ten issues that parents deem most important for doctors to discuss with kids ages 11 to 17 during routine check-ups. The topics – according to research from Knowledge Networks utilizing KnowledgePanel®, the only nationally representative online panel – rank as follows:

1. Diet/nutrition
2. Exercise/sports
3. Physical changes of puberty
4. Drug use
5. Tobacco use
6. Sexually transmitted disease
7. Depression/suicide
8. Obesity
9. Drinking
10. Eating disorders

Regarding the methodology used for the poll, Dr. Matthew Davis, Director of the C.S. Mott NPCH (based at the University of Michigan), said, "KnowledgePanel® offers us an opportunity to do truly representative national polling to reveal commonalities and differences – across race, ethnicity, and gender – in parents' opinions about topics they want discussed by doctors with their children."

The results revealed that drug use ranked as the second most important topic among Hispanics, while exercise/sports held that spot for whites and blacks. Results also vary according to both gender and age of children. Parents of 15- to 17-year-old's select drinking, tobacco use, STDs and pregnancy prevention as the most salient themes for doctors to broach with this age group. But whereas parents of boys in this age bracket rank drinking and tobacco as significant, parents of adolescent girls point to sexual abstinence and eating disorders.

The survey was administered online to a random sample of 2,060 adults – both parents and non-parents – ages 18 and older, all members of KnowledgePanel®. The sampling margin of error for a 50% statistic with 95% confidence is +2.2 percentage points.

The U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health is funded by the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the U-M Health System. As part of the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit in the U-M Division of General Pediatrics, the National Poll on Children's Health is designed to measure major health care issues and trends for U.S. children. For regular podcasts of polling results, go to www.med.umich.edu/podcast.

Knowledge Networks specializes in high-quality survey research for leaders in government and academia. Working in close partnership with our clients, we provide expertise for social and behavioral science research and public policy development. Knowledge Networks excels in study design, complex samples, analytics, and custom panel creation; we deliver affordable, statistically valid online research through KnowledgePanel® – the only available probability-selected, nationally representative Internet panel.