Alcohol Use, Risk Taking, Leisure Activities and Health Care Use Among Young People in Northern Vietnam

Abstract

Alcohol consumption is associated with a wide range of health and social consequences. It is also associated with a number of risk taking behaviours. These include illicit drug use and unsafe sex. Alcohol consumption appears to be increasing in Vietnam. The purpose of this paper is to examine the patterns of alcohol consumption and its relationship with a number of other risk taking behaviours amongst young people. Information was also obtained concerning leisure activities and use of health care. The paper also sets out to examine possible gender differences in relation to alcohol consumption and risk behaviour and to propose the development and implementation of alcohol monitoring and prevention programs in Vietnam. The study involved a cross-sectional, community survey using a standardised interview. This was conducted during face-to-face interviews with 1,408 young people aged 10–19 years. Respondents were recruited randomly through the lists of the households from 12 selected communes in three areas in Northern Vietnam. The findings presented here were part of a larger health risk behaviour survey. Levels of alcohol use were low. Overall, 16.5% of participants were experienced drinkers, and only 4% of them were current drinkers. Males were significantly more likely than females to report drinking. This study also showed that rates of alcohol consumption were associated with age, education, geographical area, gender, tobacco smoking, involvement in violence, watching television, computer use and playing computer games, wearing safety helmets and use of health services. Alcohol consumption tended to increase with age for both males and females. Alcohol and its effects on young people are clearly a growing public health issue in Vietnam. Because of this, more detailed behavioral research should be conducted into the relationship between alcohol consumption and other risky behaviours amongst young people. It is also recommended that alcohol harm reduction policies should be implemented and integrated into measures to reduce levels of other health problems such as HIV/AIDS and non communicable diseases. Such policies should ideally be evidence-based and evaluated.

“I feel good when I drink”—detecting childhood-onset alcohol abuse and dependence in a Ugandan community trial cohort

“…Reviewing the literature on substance use in children below 10 years of age in low and lower middle-income countries (LLMIC), as defined by the World Bank [36], we only managed to identify three papers describing non-street-connected children, one from Kenya and two from Vietnam. These studies reported a prevalence of substance use of 1.3-13% [37][38][39]. A prevalence of 22.5-59.6% has been reported among street-connected children in LMIC [40,41], including one study finding children initiating drinking as early as 5.5 years [42].…”

Incremental validity of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) in Vietnam

“…Drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco in many Asian countries are considered a normal social activity and socially acceptable, even among young people (Jordan et al, 2013). Recent research in Vietnam indicates, for instance, that the prevalence of alcohol and tobacco consumption actually has increased among adolescents with the age of use initiation decreasing to early adolescence (Thoa et al, 2013). These items do discriminate between referred and non-referred samples among high-income Western countries (e.g., Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001).…”

Patterns of behavioral risk factors for non-communicable diseases in Vietnam: A narrative scoping review

“…The percentage of current drinkers was found to be extraordinarily high among males (about 70%–80% from 2005–2015), in regard to the limited time period of the definition (“ Did you drink at least once in the last 30 days/ 6 months/ 12 months?” ) ( Do et al, 2015 ; Pham et al, 2009 ; Van Bui et al, 2016 ; Vietnam Ministry of Health, 2012 , 2016 ). Thoa et al (2013) also found that the rate of adolescents who consumed alcohol among the ages 10–19 was approximately 16.5% (32.0% among boys and 10.6% among girls).…”

“…Among identified documents, the results from four national surveys were reported within 10 different articles ( Do et al, 2015 ; Hoy et al, 2013 ; Nguyen and Hoang, 2018 ; Trinh et al, 2008 ; Van Bui et al, 2016 ; Vietnam Ministry of Health, 2012 , 2016 ; Vietnam Ministry of Health and Health Partnership Group, 2015 ; World Health Organization, 2014 , 2018b ) and four studies used regional sampling methods ( Huu Bich et al, 2009 ; Ly et al, 2013 ; Pham et al, 2009 ; Trinh et al, 2010 ; Van Minh et al, 2008 ). Also, we found two studies with data describing youth alcohol use (aged 10–19, sample size = 1408) ( Hanoi Medical University, 2013 ; Thoa et al, 2013 ). The analyzed documents have provided descriptive statistics on the percentage of current drinkers within the population, average amount of alcohol consumption, and a percentage which described the number of current drinkers engaged with hazardous or harmful binge drinking behaviors.…”