Availability of alcohol to children and consequences of its consumption among high school students in Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia
摘要
Hazardous alcohol consumption can lead to intoxications, injuries, or risky sexual behaviors with long-term consequences. The purpose of our study was to detect the availability of alcohol to children and the prevalence of negative consequences of its consumption among them.
MethodsAn online questionnaire survey was conducted among final year high school students in Split-Dalmatia County (SDC), Croatia, from June to July 2020 and October to December 2020. We used SPSS 25.00 for statistical analysis with P value < 0.05 considered as statistically significant.
ResultsAmong 1030 final year high schools students, 46.22% of them bought alcohol without problems in supermarkets, 39.11% in nightclubs and café bars, while only 18.69% have ever been rejected from buying alcohol and did not manage to get it. Most of the students (69.03%) had been drunk during their lifetime, 47.57% of them more than once, more often students from rural places and islands (P < 0.001) and from vocational schools (P = 0.019). Seven percent of them had been in a fight due to drunkenness, 5.73% had a traffic accident under the influence of alcohol, 5.28% had unprotected sexual intercourse, 5.96% had sexual intercourse with an unknown person or experienced sexual aggression, while 2.41% of students were victims of sexual violence under the influence of alcohol.
ConclusionsDespite existing law measures, the availability of alcohol to children in SDC is not limited as expected. The high prevalence of drunkenness among them with numerous and various negative consequences is also worrying, indicating better preventive measures are needed.