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Alcohol and drug misuse sweeping world, says WHO

Susan Mayor, London

One in four deaths among men aged 15-29 in Europe is now attributable to alcohol, as "binge drinking" penetrates youth culture in both the industrialised and developing world, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), told a European ministerial conference on young people and alcohol in Stockholm.

Globally 140 million people now have alcohol dependency, which damages public and private lives, economies, and family life. Dr Brundtland said: "Data from across the world suggests that a culture of sporadic, heavy, or binge drinking among young people may now be increasing also in developing countries. While overall rates of adult per capita consumption are falling in many countries, young people are too often drinking excessive quantities of alcohol to intoxication in a single drinking episode."

Data from a European school survey project on alcohol and other drugs for 1999 presented at the WHO conference showed that smoking, alcohol use, and use of illicit drugs had increased significantly over the past few years in most European countries.

More than half of the 95000 teenagers taking part said they had smoked cigarettes at least once. Smoking had increased in most countries, compared with a survey carried out in 1995. Particularly high rates of smoking were reported in the Czech Republic and Lithuania. The survey included an average of 2400 teenagers from each of the 30 European countries taking part. Teenagers aged 15-16 completed questionnaires anonymously in their classrooms, under conditions similar to those for a written test.

The highest smoking ratesbased on students reporting that they had smoked on at least 40 occasionswere in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Russia, where nearly half of the participants reported this level. Researcher Bjïrn Hibell, director of the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs, noted: "The overall impression regarding smoking among the [responding students] is that it is a well established habit, showing few signs of diminishing." Smoking rates seemed to be similar in boys and girls in most countries, although they were higher in girls in Denmark, France, Greenland, the Republic of Ireland, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Boys reported higher smoking rates in Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Ukraine.

Use of alcohol was common, particularly in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Malta, and the United Kingdom. Alcohol consumption by teenagers seemed to have fallen in only two countriesItaly and Cypruswhere it had been high in 1995. Clear increases were seen in the proportion of students using alcohol in central and eastern Europe, particularly in Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia. Drinking by Norwegian teenagers had also increased. The highest frequency of alcohol consumption was reported for Denmarkwhere 59% of the respondents reported drinking alcohol on at least 40 occasions.

Highest rates of drunkenness were reported by students in Denmark, where 41% reported having been drunk 20 times or more. Finland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom showed the next highest rates, with nearly one in four teenagers indicating that they had been drunk at least 20 times. Boys were much more likely to report having been drunk than girls. Binge drinking (defined as having five or more alcoholic drinks) was most common in Denmark, Ireland, Poland, and the United Kingdom. Dr Hibell noted: "Teenagers tend to follow adult drinking patternswith greater overall alcohol consumption in southern Europe, but more binge drinking in northern Europe."

A summary of The 1999 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs is available at www.can.se. Copies can be obtained from CAN, Box 70412, 10725 Stockholm, Sweden (price 450 Swedish kronor plus postage).

(Credit: SOURCE: WHO)