Prevalence of Substance Use & Abuse in Late Childhood & Early Adolescence: What Are the Implications?

The aim of the present study was to assess the prevalence by gender of substance use and misuse in late childhood and early adolescence.

A survey was conducted in 2013–2014 at primary and secondary schools of Padova, Veneto region, North-East Italy, on a sample of 171 pupils in 5th grade and 1325 in 6th to 8th grade.

…Among the 8th graders, more than one in three males and one in four females had experimented with smoking, and more than half the boys and nearly half the girls had experience of alcohol. In this same age group, almost two in three males and one in three females had used energy drinks, and nearly 5% of the boys had experience of marijuana and/or stimulant drugs. In addition, almost one in four of the male students in 8th grade had experimented with three of these substances.

The middle school years should be identified as the first period at risk concerning the use of these drugs. Prevention programs should begin in early adolescence, focusing on delaying the use or abuse of any of the “gateway drugs.”

Our findings indicate that smoking and both alcohol and energy drink consumption increment steadily with age in early adolescence – from 5th grade onwards – in both males and females, albeit with some gender-related differences, while 8th grade is the age showing a rising curve in the use of marijuana and stimulant drugs, especially in males.

In particular, our study showed that the number of adolescents who were smoking at least once a month increased steeply in 8th grade, although there were still few who smoked daily. These figures are consistent with the findings reported by the HBSC in Padua (Mirandola et al., 2010). In this age group, even smoking experimentally coincides with a significant 16-fold increase in the risk of becoming a smoker in adulthood by comparison with not smoking at all (Chassin et al., 1990).The wish to “experiment” typical of adolescent age encourages some teenagers to try cigarettes too, but for children who have already tried one or two cigarettes, the odds of them acquiring the habit is four times higher than for those who have never smoked. Once people have acquired the habit, it is difficult to stop and smoking is likely to be a long-term addiction (McNeill et al., 1989). These data confirm the importance of primary prevention programs directed at children and early adolescents to avoid them ever smoking at all, and prevention efforts focusing on younger children should be designed to discourage any experimentation, even just a puff. Starting prevention programs at high school is too late. In fact, HBSC data confirm that 19% of 15-year-old students in Italy smoke at least once a week (Cavallo et al., 2013), while in the USA the figure is 8.5% (Currie et al., 2012).

Judging from our study, in 8th grade almost one in three boys and one in five girls drink alcohol at least once a month, and 6.2% of males and 1.1% of females are at least weekly alcohol drinkers. These findings are comparable with the data for Italy emerging from the HBSC survey 2010, which indicated that 20.7% of 13-year-olds drink alcohol at least monthly (Cavallo et al., 2013). These figures indicate high alcohol drinking rates among younger adolescents and confirm that in Italy their contact with alcoholic beverages is extremely early and frequent.

The use of alcohol at an early age is associated with future alcohol-related problems (Kokotailo, 2010). Data from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Study (Grant and Dawson, 1997) substantiated the conviction that the prevalence of lifetime alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse show a striking decrease with increasing age at onset of use. For people aged 12 years or younger at the time of their first use, the prevalence of lifetime alcohol dependence was 40.6%, whereas it was 16.6% for those who began to drink at 18 years old, and 10.6% for those who started at 21 years of age. Similarly, the prevalence of lifetime alcohol abuse was 8.3% for those who started drinking at 12 years or younger, 7.8% for those who started at 18 years old, and 4.8% for those who started at 21. The early onset of alcohol intake has been linked to familial and peer factors and the perception of the alcohol's dangerousness. Indeed, research show that parents' drinking, proactive parenting, peer influences, and perceptions of the harm drinking causes, all measured in late childhood, will affect the age of alcohol initiation, and this in turn affects the risk of alcohol misuse in late adolescence (Hawkins et al., 1997). Moreover, early alcohol initiation has also been associated with greater sexual risk-taking (unprotected sexual intercourse, multiple partners, being drunk or high during sexual intercourse, and pregnancy) (Stueve and O'Donnell, 2005), academic problems, other substance use, and delinquent behavior in mid- to late adolescence (Ellickson et al., 2003).

Below:  Prevalence distributions of lifetime substance use in different school grades by gender in Padova, Veneto region, North-East Italy, in 2013–2014

Below:  Prevalence distributions of number of different substances tried at least once in a lifetime (tobacco, alcohol, energy drinks, marijuana, stimulant drugs) in different school grades by gender in Padova, Veneto region, North-East Italy, in 2013-2014.

Below:  Prevalence distributions of ongoing substance use in different school grades by gender in Padova, Veneto region, North-East Italy, in 2013–2014

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/Z7p7qj

By:  Luigi Gallimberti,^a Alessandra Buja,^b,⁎ Sonia Chindamo,^a Camilla Lion,^c Alberto Terraneo,^a Elena Marini,^a Luis Javier Gomez Perez,^b and Vincenzo Baldo^d

^aNovella Fronda Foundation, Foundation for Studies and Applied Clinical Research in the Field of Addiction Medicine, Padua, Italy

^bDepartment of Molecular Medicine, Laboratory of Public Health and Population Studies, Institute of Hygiene, University of Padova, Padua, Via Loredan 18, 35128 Padova, Italy

^c2nd School of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine Department of Molecular Medicine, Laboratory of Public Health and Population Studies, Institute of Hygiene, University of Padova, 35128 Padova, Italy

^dDepartment of Molecular Medicine, Laboratory of Public Health and Population Studies, Institute of Hygiene, University of Padua, Via Loredan 18, 35128 Padova Italy

Luigi Gallimberti: ti.itrebmillagoiduts@itrebmillag.igiul; Alessandra Buja: ti.dpinu@ajub.ardnassela; Sonia Chindamo: moc.liamg@omadnihc.ainos;Camilla Lion: ti.dpinu.itneduts@noil.allimac; Alberto Terraneo: ti.itrebmillagoiduts@oiduts; Elena Marini: moc.duolci@iniram.anele; Luis Javier Gomez Perez: ti.dpinu@zerepzemog.reivajsiul; Vincenzo Baldo: ti.dpinu@odlab.oznecniv

^⁎Corresponding author at: Department of Molecular Medicine, Laboratory of Public Health and Population Studies, Institute of Hygiene, University of Padova, Via Loredan 18, 35128 Padova, Italy.Department of Molecular MedicineLaboratory of Public Health and Population StudiesInstitute of HygieneUniversity of PadovaVia Loredan 18Padova35128Italy ; Email: ti.dpinu@ajub.ardnassela

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