Background: Health risk behaviors remain high among in-school adolescents despite the effort of Nigeria Federal Ministry of Education to ensure that aspect of health risk behavior are captured and taught within the curriculum in order to promote health. Methods: This cross sectional survey was conducted among randomly selected two hundred and five (205) students from two private secondary schools in Ibadan North LGA Oyo state, Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used to assess respondents ’level of knowledge regarding content of health education curriculum, and common health risk behavior practice by the adolescents.Results: More than average of the respondent (54.1%) had basic knowledge on the content of health education curriculum. Moreover, health risk behavior remain high among in-school adolescents, as 70.2% of respondents were involved in substance use, while low knowledge on cigarette smoking is significantly associated to adolescents involvement in cigarrete smoking< p=0.05.Lack of school health teachers at the senior secondary classes as being implicated as a major factor influencing adolescents’ knowledge and practice of health risk behavior. Conclusion: Health education efforts aimed at improving adolescents’ health behavior depends on implementation of the curriculum and improving instructional materials, not only at the junior secondary school class but as well at the senior secondary school level.
Keywords: Adolescents’ health risk behavior, Private Secondary schools
