Aspectos epidemiológicos relacionados ao consumo de álcool entre estudantes adolescentes

Abstract

Objectives: To identify aspects associated with alcohol use in adolescent students. Methods: A total of 638 students aged between 13 and 17 years were assessed. They were randomly selected from the enrollment records of 13 urban and rural public schools of the city of Uberlândia, MG, Brazil, from November 2009 to August 2010. Students subsequently completed the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and a questionnaire about sociodemographic, personal and family data. Results: Previous alcohol use was more frequent (p<0.05) among girls (86.6%) than boys (79.1%) in the urban area; among adolescents of the central urban (84.8%) or suburban area (81.9%) than the rural area (65.4%) and among adolescents whose parents drank alcohol (89.4% vs 71.0%). Among boys and girls, 57.5% and 62.0% began to drink alcohol at the age of 13 respectively, 26.1% and 20.5% drank alcohol at the level of risk/harm/probable dependence, an active sexual life was more frequent (p<0.05) among those who had already used alcohol (55.5% and 35.8%) than those who did not use it (29.0% and 8.9%), and 24.5% and 18% did not always use condoms after alcohol use. Of all adolescents, 97.7% had already managed to buy alcoholic beverages and 25.4% believed that there was no risk involved with alcohol use. Considering advertisements for alcoholic beverages as appealing was more frequent (p<0.05) among students who had already drunk alcohol (44.3% vs 32.2%). Conclusions: The following aspects were observed: 1) alarming early alcohol use, especially in the urban area, 2) influence caused by parental alcohol use, 3) influence of alcohol on adolescents sexual life, 4) the fact that adolescents can easily buy alcoholic beverages, 5) lack of knowledge about the risks of alcohol use, and 6) greater appeal of advertisements for alcoholic beverages among those who had already drunk alcohol.