Decreasing prevalence of alcohol consumption among greek adolescents.
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.
Arvanitidou
Malamatenia
M
Laboratory of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Tirodimos
Ilias
I
Kyriakidis
Ioannis
I
Tsinaslanidou
Zinovia
Z
Seretopoulos
Demitris
D
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*