Alcohol and Teenagers. The Main Trends in Alcohol Consumption by Adolescents at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Background. Alcohol consumption (alcoholism) is one of the most common health risk factors, usually originating in adolescence.

Aims — to identify the main trends and features of alcoholization of Russian teenage schoolchildren at the beginning of the 21st century.

Methods. The Center for Monitoring Bad Habits among Children and Adolescents of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “CNIIOIZ” of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation studied alcoholism among schoolchildren aged 15–17 years as part of monitoring for the period from 1999–2000 to 2019–2020. When forming the sample, a multi-stage selection was used: from typological and random to a continuous anonymous questionnaire. In 1999–2000, 12 912 urban teenagers (5939 boys and 6973 girls) were interviewed, in 2010–2011 — 15 323 teenagers (6961 boys and 8362 girls) and in 2019–2020 — 14 084 teenagers (6535 boys and 7549 girls). Statistical development of the materials was carried out using the computer program AnkProc (“Risk Factors”) and included obtaining absolute and relative indicators, calculating the correlation coefficient and statistical significance of differences using the nonparametric Pearson criterion χ².

Results. During the period under review, the prevalence of alcoholism decreased 2.2 times among boys, 1.8 times among girls and amounted to 37.0 out of 100 boys and 49.0 out of 100 girls, respectively, in 2019–2020. Simultaneously with the reduction in the prevalence of alcoholism, the prevalence of frequent alcohol consumption among both boys and girls decreased, and amounted to 6.7 out of 100 among boys and 7.8 out of 100 adolescents of the corresponding age and gender in 2019–2020. Reduced: uncontrolled alcohol consumption “with friends for company” and the intensity of alcohol addiction almost 2 times compared to 1999–2000. The most commonly consumed alcoholic beverage among boys is beer, and among girls — champagne. The age-related structure of adolescents’ involvement in alcohol has not changed during the period under review. The peak of alcohol addiction among boys and girls lasted from the age group of 13–14 years to the age group of 15–16 years and began to occur in the age group of 13–16 years.

Conclusions. For 20 years of the 21st century, there was a statistically significant reduction in alcohol consumption among urban teenagers in Russia.