According to data analyzed by Alexandra Bailin, a research assistant at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York, and her colleagues, 43 percent of teens text while driving. The data comes from a 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of 7,833 driving-age high school students. The survey was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Echoing the words of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Bailin said in an American Academy of Pediatrics press release that texting while driving has become a “national epidemic.”

The risk of car accidents, which are already the leading cause of death among teens, is significantly increased by texting while driving. In fact, this particular act has been shown to increase the risk of a car accident by 23 times, leading some experts to conclude that texting while driving is more dangerous than driving drunk.

The 2011 survey was the first Youth Risk Behavior Survey to include a question about texting while driving. The question asked driving-age teens how many out of the past 30 days they had spent texting or emailing while driving.

The researchers also attempted to ascertain whether state laws prohibiting drivers from texting while driving are effective among high school students.

The researchers discovered that males were more likely to text while driving than females, and that the frequency of texting increased with age.

They also learned that teens who texted while diving were more likely to participate in other high-risk behaviors, like driving intoxicated and having unprotected sex.

Researchers hope to use this information to design better mechanisms to reduce the prevalence of texting while driving.

In addition to seeing the association between texting while driving and other high-risk behaviors, the researchers discovered that state laws prohibiting texting while driving had little impact on teens.

“Although texting while driving was slightly less common in states that prohibit it, the reality is that millions of teens text while driving,” said Andrew Adesman, chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York.

Do you text while driving? If you’re a parent, have you given your teens strict rules about texting while driving? Share your thoughts in the comments section.