Focus on Youth Drinking

The ESPAD Report 2003, Alcohol and Other Drug Use Among Students in 35 European Countries,

has recently been published and show continued disturbing trends among young people of school age. The target group were those who would become 16 during the year of data collection.

In two thirds of the ESPAD countries the vast majority (90 per cent or more) have drunk alcohol at least once in their lifetime. Not all these, of course, drink on a regular basis. The report states that “a student who has been drinking at least 40 times can be labelled as more of a regular customer”.

The highest number reporting use of alcohol 40 times or more in a lifetime include Denmark, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (43-50 per cent). The lowest proportion is reported in Turkey (7 per cent), followed by Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Portugal (13-15 per cent). (Fig 1)

More boys than girls report this level of alcohol consumption. Although in a few places (the Isle of Man, Finland, and Norway) the gender distribution is about equal, no country reports a prevalence rate among girls exceeding that of boys.

A higher frequency of alcohol use is shown among students who had consumed alcohol ten times or more during the last thirty days, that is at least every third day on average. About on quarter of the respondents in the Netherlands and about one fifth in Austria, Belgium, Malta, and the United Kingdom (17-21 per cent) reported this frequency of alcohol use. On the other hand, in some countries this frequency is hardly reported at all. Very low prevalence rates are mainly concentrated in the Nordic countries.

Many of the respondents report frequent beer drinking. The proportions of students who had consumed beer three times or more during the last thirty days varies between 10 and 44 per cent.

The highest figures are found in Denmark, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and Poland (40-44 per cent). The smallest figures were reported from Norway and Turkey (10 and 14 per cent respectively).

The report goes on to point out that drinking beer “is a predominantly male behaviour in most ESPAD countries”. The only exceptions are Iceland and Greenland where girls drink roughly the same amount of beer as boys. (Fig 2)

A smaller group of the respondents had been drinking wine and beer during the last thirty days. In most cases the proportion is lower than 20 per cent, although Malta is an exception at 35 per cent. Other high prevalence countries include Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, and Slovenia (21-23 per cent).

The number of respondents who had been drinking spirits during the last thirty days varies considerably. The Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom figure prominently in the higher frequency group, although they concede top place to Malta where the figure was 43 per cent. Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Faroe Islands, Greece all report figures of between 37 and 39 per cent.

In about half the countries, more boys than girls report such frequent consumption of spirits. Conversely, the same number of countries report prevalence rates which are equal or almost so between the sexes. The report says that “only three countries report proportions among the girls that exceed those of the boys. These countries are all high frequency countries and they are all part of the British Isles, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the Isle of Man. (Fig 3)

Some of the respondents have a limited experience of getting drunk, whilst others become intoxicated more frequently. However, in thirty of the thirty-five countries the majority have been drunk at least once.

The countries with the highest proportion saying that they had been drunk twenty times or more include Denmark, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the United Kingdom, Estonia, and Finland (26-36 per cent). In other countries only a few reported this high frequency of drunkenness. In Turkey only 1 per cent had been drunk twenty times or more and in Cyprus, France, Greece, and Portugal the figure was about 3 per cent.

In most of the countries there are more boys than girls who report this frequency of drunkenness. In no country are the girls in a majority. However, in a relatively high number of countries the gender distribution is roughly even. These countries include those of the British Isles and most of the Nordic countries. (Fig 4)

The number of students who have been drunk during the last thirty days is, of course, much smaller, but the highest ranked countries are in most cases the same. Thus, in Denmark and Ireland about 25 per cent of the respondents had been drunk that often. High prevalence rates were also found in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.

The report says: “The frequency of having five or more drinks in a row, sometimes referred to as ‘binge drinking’, provides an alternative measure of heavy alcohol use. The proportion indicating such consumption three times or more during the last thirty days vary [sic] considerably over the ESPAD countries.”

The highest number of young people reporting this pattern of behaviour is found in Denmark, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and the United Kingdom (24- 32 per cent). As can be seen, there is a concentration of countries to the north and western parts of Europe, Malta being the only exception. The lowest binge drinking figures were found in Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Romania, and Turkey. (Fig 5)