Binge drinking and associated factors among school students: a cross-sectional study in Zhejiang Province, China

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the prevalence and correlating factors of binge drinking among middle and high school students in Zhejiang Province, China.MethodsWe performed a cross-sectional study using data from a school-based survey. A total of 23 543 (response rate=97.5%) eligible adolescents from 442 different schools (including middle schools, academic high schools and vocational high schools) were asked to fill in an anonymous self-administered behaviour questionnaire between April and May 2017. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine the associations of sociodemographic and behavioural factors with binge drinking.ResultsThe mean (SD) age of participants was 15.6 (1.7) years and 51.3% were boys. The proportions of students from middle schools, academic high schools and vocational high schools were 51.9%, 27.5% and 20.6%, respectively. In total, 22.8% (95% CI 21.6 to 23.9) of students reported drinking alcohol in the past 30 days and 9.2% (95% CI 8.5 to 10.0) of students reported binge drinking (defined as drinking four or more alcoholic drinks in 1–2 hours period among girls and five or more alcoholic drinks among boys) during the past month. The prevalence of binge drinking was highest among vocational high school students (17.9% vs 6.3% and 7.7% among middle school and academic high school students, respectively). Older age, studying at high school, poor academic performance, higher levels of physical activity, excessive screen-time, loneliness, insomnia, previous suicide attempt, cigarette smoking, fighting, being bullied and sexual experience were found to be positively associated with adolescent binge drinking.ConclusionsBinge drinking is common among middle and high school students in Zhejiang, China. Efforts to prevent binge drinking may need to address a cluster of sociodemographic and behavioural factors. Our findings provide information to enable healthcare providers to identify students at high-risk of binge drinking and to inform planning of intervention measures for at-risk students.

Prevalence of alcohol consumption and its risk factors among university students: A cross-sectional study across six universities in Myanmar

“…People who experience feelings of hopelessness tend to harbour negative expectations about future life events and are more likely to experience depressive disorders or depend on substances like benzodiazepines, opiates, and alcohol [36]. Academic stress, the pressure to succeed, and peer competition may cause university students to relieve their stress by consuming alcohol [37]. Therefore, counselling centres in universities must be more proactive and help students who exhibit the symptoms of depression or experience feelings of hopelessness.…”

“…Our study showed that students who smoked in the previous 30 days before the study were seven times more likely to consume alcohol than their non-smoking counterparts. Cigarette smoking during youth is strongly linked to subsequent alcohol use and abuse [6,20,[37][38][39][40]. A systematic review also concluded that a higher quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption was associated with a higher prevalence of tobacco smoking among European university students [41].…”

Binge drinking, alcohol outlet density and associated factors: a multilevel analysis among adolescents in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil

“…The comparison of binge drinking among countries is complicated due to the differences in the methodology, drinking cultures, drink sizes, and other definitions as well as cultural differences observed 33 . The high rates found for alcohol consumption among adolescents represent a significant public health concern due to the possibilities of health damage in adolescents and the possibility of a problematic consumption in adult life 4,5,6,7,34 . Our findings show positive association between mothers that consume alcohol and binge drinking among adolescents.…”

“…The last national drug survey revealed that 43.6% of Brazilian adolescents between 13 to 15 years old and 65.3% between 16 to 18 reported having consumed alcoholic beverages in the last year 3 . Violence, poor school performance, unprotected sex and drug use are multiple risk behaviors associated with this practice 4,5,6,7 .…”

Factors related to heavy drinking between British Columbia Asian adolescents and South Korean adolescents

“…Previous studies exploring predictors related to heavy drinking among adolescents in various countries have identified a number of predictors, including differences by gender (Iwamoto et al, 2016), school grade (Chung & Joung, 2013;Larsen et al, 2017), bullying victimization (Wang et al, 2018), depression (Lamis, Ballard, May, & Dvorak, 2016), sleep quality (Hasler et al, 2017), exercise (Chung & Joung, 2018), current cigarette smoking (Chung & Joung, 2013), and sexual experience (Wang et al, 2018). Although these demographic characteristics and health and risk behaviors are often related or co-occurring, most of the preceding studies have studied only one concept, or have been studied only in the adolescents of one country (Chung & Joung, 2013), or have been conducted in other countries, such as US (Chung & Joung, 2018;Iwamoto et al, 2016).…”