title: Decreasing prevalence of alcohol consumption among greek adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To obtain data on alcohol consumption among school children of secondary education and to investigate any correlation to their health behaviors and parental socioeconomic status.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was distributed to students from a representative sample of 15 schools from Thessaloniki, the second (after Athens) largest metropolitan city of Greece. A total of 1185 students (505 males, 680 females) participated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  286 males (56.6%) and 329 females (48.4%) reported consuming alcohol. The initiation of drinking was at the age of 13.2 years for boys and 13 years for girls. Alcohol drinking was positively associated with socio-demographic variables and negative health behaviors such as parental low level of education, lack of physical exercise, coffee consumption, and smoking.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although our results show a decrease in alcohol use, which is more pronounced in male students, the prevalence of frequent alcohol consumption is among the highest in Europe's countries.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Malamatenia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arvanitidou
authors.forename: Ilias
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tirodimos
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kyriakidis
authors.forename: Zinovia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tsinaslanidou
authors.forename: Demitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Seretopoulos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D015438:Health Behavior; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*