2019 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey results released

This week the results from the 2019 administration of the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) were released by the Center for Health and Environmental Data within the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. HKCS is administered every other year to Colorado’s middle and high school students. It’s an anonymous and voluntary opportunity for young people to report their health status in the areas of nutrition, physical activity and safety, mental health and substance use, among others – and our state’s most important data source for understanding how our young people are doing.

The data gathered by HKCS are used by stakeholders across the state and inform some of the programs that serve our kids. At the Children’s Campaign, we analyze HKCS data each year in our annual KIDS COUNT report to better understand the overall health of Colorado’s young people and to inform our policy priorities.

In recent years, mental health data from the HKCS have been particularly helpful for understanding the significant and heartbreaking increase in Colorado’s teen suicide rate. Result from 2019 indicate that the share of high school students experiencing symptoms of clinical depression has increased since 2017, to nearly 35% of students. Data also show concerning increases in the share of students reporting suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.

To learn more, review 2019 HKCS data as well as data from previous years here.

About Erica Manoatl

Erica Manoatl is the Manager of Research Initiatives for the Colorado Children’s Campaign. In this role she ensures the Children’s Campaign’s policy priorities are research- and data-informed, shares data on child well-being with stakeholders around the state, and leads our internal evaluation efforts to understand our impact. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from George Washington University and a Master of Public Health in Population and Family Health from Columbia University.