Thousands of children are to be quizzed on their sex lives, diet, stress levels, alcohol consumption and fitness as part of a Government teen health survey.

The study will ask about 5,000 youngsters aged between 11 and 18 a series of questions about their lifestyle and a personalised report will then be produced for each child to help them make changes to improve their health.

The confidential questionnaire will be given to every child at public and private middle and senior schools on the Island in October and parental permission will be required before students can fill in their answers.

Questions will include:

In the past 30 days, how many days did you drink alcohol?

Are you ever tempted to try street drugs?

Do you often feel unable to cope with life?

In the past 12 months, did you ever seriously consider attempting suicide?

How many times a week do you usually eat a fast food meal?

How do you describe your weight?

?Do you feel worthless, not good enough or unimportant much of the time?

? In the past 30 days, how many days did you smoke a cigarette?

Questions on youngsters? sexual habits are still being drafted but are likely to ask at what age they became sexually active and how many sexual partners they have had. The personalised reports could provide advice on contraception and how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases for those youngsters at risk.

The study, which is being conducted and paid for by the Argus Group, was announced at a press conference yesterday attended by new Education Minister Neletha Butterfield and Health Minister Patrice Minors.

Mrs. Butterfield said this generation of children had a worse life expectancy than their parents because of problems like obesity and diabetes.

?This age group will be the first group where life expectancy will be less than their parents,? she said. ?This teen health survey sponsored by our partner, the Argus Group, is a valuable tool in reversing this trend. Our goal is to improve the health of our young people so they can succeed and gain the most from their educational experience.?

Cindy Campbell, Argus? executive vice president for group insurance, later told : ?It?s terrifying to me that our kids are going to live less long than we do. That?s a very scary stat. Not only will they live less long but their quality of life will be poorer because they are going to be sicker.

?We have a good health care system here but it?s under stress like every health care system in the world. We may not be able to afford healthcare in the future.?

She said Argus was committed to carrying out the survey in future years and that in the long-term the survey results and personalised reports could help to prevent illness and drive down health insurance claims.

She added: ?There is something in it for Argus but our fundamental purpose is for the community at large. My ulterior motive in all of this...is to try to fundamentally change the health profile of this country. We have to get the kids on board.?

Ms Campbell said school principals would be given statistics on their pupils to help them formulate health strategies and that the Health and Education Ministries would also have access to the data by next January.

But she stressed that students? identities would remain confidential despite them being asked to provide their names on the questionnaire.

Mrs. Minors said the data gathered from the survey would help the Department of Health identify how young people?s attitudes to health had changed since a ?teen wellness? survey in 2001.

?The results gathered will help us to monitor whether our young people are becoming healthier,? she said. ?We certainly hope they are.?

Ms Campbell said that five years ago 25 percent of children on the Island were overweight. ?What?s scary is only seven percent of the boys perceived that they were overweight and only 13 percent of those girls perceived that they were overweight.?