Risky health behavior among adolescents in the childhood cancer survivor study cohort.

OBJECTIVE To report the prevalence and comparison of cancer-linked health behaviors and identify risk factors associated with unhealthy behavior among adolescent siblings and cancer survivors. METHODS The Child Health and Illness Profile--Adolescent Edition (CHIP--AE) was completed by 307 survivors and 97 sibling controls 14-20 years of age. RESULTS Risky behavior ranged from 0.7% to 35.8% for survivors and 1.0% to 41.2% for siblings. Comparisons of sexual behavior, tobacco, alcohol, or illicit drug use utilizing continuous data revealed no differences between groups. Categorically, survivors were less likely to report past smokeless tobacco use or current use of beer/wine or binge drinking (p-values range from .01 to .04). Survivors with better mental health were at lower risk for poor behavioral outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Adolescent survivors engage in risky health behaviors at rates generally equivalent to their siblings. Aggressive health education efforts should be directed toward this high-risk population.