From 6th grade to high school, new data shows teen health declining in Korea
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In a nation where academic pressure intensifies sharply as children grow older, a groundbreaking multiyear study is revealing how the physical and mental health of teenagers deteriorates over time.
As students trade play for cram schools, public health officials are uncovering the long-term toll of childhood in one of the world's most competitive societies.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency released raw data Tuesday from its sixth annual Youth Health Panel Survey. The initiative tracks a single cohort of 5,051 students who entered the study in 2019 as sixth-graders through their high school graduation in 2028. The latest dataset follows 4,141 of these students — an 82 percent retention rate — through their second year of high school in 2024.
The 2024 dataset introduces 29 core health indicators spanning five major domains: diet, physical activity, tobacco use, alcohol consumption and general illness. Crucially, the survey added specific metrics measuring screen addiction and high-caffeine energy drink consumption, capturing how teenagers cope with grueling academic schedules.
Initial findings highlight that frequent energy drink intake — defined as three or more times per week — and smartphone overdependence have emerged as significant new public health risks among high school sophomores.
In addition to digital and dietary strain, the longitudinal findings track a steady shift in substance exposure and lifestyle habits as students progress toward adulthood.
The data detail precise initiation ages, usage frequencies and surrounding environmental influences — such as peer behavior and household exposure — for traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes and alcohol. Coupled with metrics on exercise frequency, sleep duration and self-reported depression or stress, the dataset provides a detailed picture of how adolescent wellbeing declines under sustained academic pressure.
The raw data, scrubbed of personal identifiers, is publicly accessible via the agency's website to encourage independent research across medicine, statistics and economics. The release follows an academic symposium held in August, where researchers presented 95 separate studies examining environmental and psychological determinants of youth health based on the survey's first five years of findings.
"This release allows researchers to analyze youth health behaviors from the perspective of developmental changes over time, rather than just isolated snapshots," said Lim Seung-kwan, director of the agency. "We will continue to produce and disclose high-quality data to support evidence-based health policies for young people."
By illuminating the daily habits of teenagers as they navigate high school, public health officials said they hope the long-term data will guide targeted interventions — from managing screen time to regulating high-caffeine drinks — before health routines solidify into adulthood.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.