One in three 13 year olds are binge drinking: Study

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMar 12 2012

Alarming results from a new research shows that nearly one third of teenagers in Scotland are “binge drinking” by the age of 13.

Some 35% of school pupils drink to excess by their early teenage years, a study has found. The findings came out of a survey of drinking habits in six European countries: Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Scotland. The study defined binge drinking as consuming five or more alcoholic drinks on one occasion.

For the study the team of researchers questioned 2,937 people with an average age of 13. Researchers found that 35% of young people there have had at least one binge-drinking session by that age, compared with 6% of 13-year-olds in Iceland, the country with the lowest rates among the six. Youngsters in Scotland came out second in terms of alcohol consumption, topped only by children in the Netherlands.

When looked at in more detail, the figures show 8% of teenagers in Scotland had drunk to excess at least five times in their life and 13% admitted binge drinking on between two and five occasions.

Authors whose work was published in the scientific journal Pediatrics, wrote, “Icelandic youth had the lowest rates of binge drinking, whereas youths in The Netherlands, Scotland and Germany had the highest…Factors that were associated with binge drinking included peer drinking, sensation seeking and rebelliousness, school performance, age and sibling drinking.”

Dr Evelyn Gillan, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said, “Young people have 24/7 influences on them that make drinking, even heavy drinking, the norm, and that's the thing that we have to reverse. We need to change the culture.”

Lead author Dr Reiner Hanewinkel, of the Institute for Therapy and Health Research in Kiel, Germany, “The drinking cultures in countries like Scotland, Germany and Holland are the same but in Iceland they are different because people have maybe one or two drinks with a meal. They don't drink in binges.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said, “We are taking decisive action to tackle the harm caused by alcohol and stop it scarring another generation of Scots. The introduction of minimum pricing will address the issue of alcohol being sold at pocket-money prices. We have also taken steps to stop under agers getting hold of alcohol in the first place by rolling out test purchasing nationwide to catch rogue retailers who sell alcohol to children. In addition, police forces and local authorities across Scotland are operating a wide range of initiatives and diversionary activities to tackle underage drinking.”