title: Drunkenness and its association with health risk behaviors among adolescents and young adults in three Asian cities: Hanoi, Shanghai, Taipei.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the prevalence of drunkenness among adolescents in Hanoi, Shanghai, and Taipei and explore the association between heavy drinking and other health risk behaviors.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data are drawn from the Three-city Collaborative Study of Adolescent Health, conducted in Hanoi, Shanghai, and Taipei in 2006. A sample of 17,016 adolescents and young adults, aged 15-24 years, was selected by multistage sampling. Descriptive analysis was used to estimate the proportion of drunkenness and other health risk behaviors. Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate relationships between drunkenness and risky health behaviors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proportions of the sample getting drunk during the past month were 6.36%, 4.53%, and 8.47% in Hanoi, Shanghai, and Taipei, respectively. More males than females reported drunkenness in all three cities, with the difference highest in Hanoi (11.08% vs. 1.14%) and lowest in Taipei (9.69% vs. 7.18%). Different levels of relationship between drunkenness and health risk behaviors, such as anxiety, suicidal ideation, smoking, gambling, fighting, drinking and driving, and having sexual intercourse, were found across the three cities; an exception was nonuse of contraception.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Drunkenness was positively associated with many health risk behaviors. It may serve as an indicator of other risky behaviors. Interventions to reduce drinking and drunkenness may contribute considerably to the prevention of other risk behaviors and to adolescent safety and well-being.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, PR China; Department of Epidemiology and Social Science, Key Laboratory of Family Planning Device of National Population and Family Planning Commission, Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Qianqian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Social Science, Key Laboratory of Family Planning Device of National Population and Family Planning Commission, Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research, Shanghai 200237, PR China. Electronic address: chaohual@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Chaohua
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Social Science, Key Laboratory of Family Planning Device of National Population and Family Planning Commission, Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Ersheng
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Social Science, Key Laboratory of Family Planning Device of National Population and Family Planning Commission, Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD21205,USA.
authors.forename: Laurie S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Zabin
authors.affiliation: Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD21205,USA.
authors.forename: Mark R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Emerson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000453:epidemiology*; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D002947:Cities / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012309:Risk-Taking; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D014744:Vietnam / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adolescent; Alcohol; Drunkenness; Eastern Asian city; Heath risk behaviors