News di Alcologia

One in ten primary school leavers 'has drunk alcohol in past week'

More than one in ten children in their final year of primary school admits to having drunk alcohol during the previous week, according to a new survey.

Some 13 per cent of boys aged 10 and 11, and ten per cent of girls the same age claimed to have had an alcoholic drink within the past seven days.

One in every 100 young boys said they had drunk alcohol on three of the past seven days, according to the poll by the Schools Health Education Unit.

Alcohol consumption increased as children grew older with more than a quarter of year ten pupils, who are aged 14 and 15, admitting to having drunk alcohol at least once in the previous week.

Some 17 per cent of girls in year ten said they had been drunk on at least one occasion in the past seven days, with four per cent claiming they had been intoxicated on more than one occasion during that period.

More than 68,000 children aged 10 to 15 took part in the survey, which was carried out in 2012 and concerned a variety of topics including alcohol and drug consumption.

Ten per cent of pupils in year ten admitted to having taken drugs while drinking.

However, the survey found that the proportion of 14 and 15-year-olds comsuming more than 10 units of alcohol per week had declined to nine per cent overall, from 20 per cent of boys and 14 per cent of girls in 1995.

Emily Robinson, director of campaigns at Alcohol Concern, said: ''These numbers are really frightening. The Chief Medical Officer advises that an alcohol free childhood is the safest option and that those under 15 years old, ideally, should not drink at all.

''That 17 per cent of girls in year 10 report being drunk in the last week is a wake-up call. This kind of drinking can have all sorts of impact on a child's development. We have to face the fact that this is happening and get a grip on it."

(Articolo pubblicato dal CUFRAD sul sito www.alcolnews.it)