The researchers looked at the drinking habits of 16-year-olds in 1986 and then compared that to what had happened to them by the time they were 30.
The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found they had developed a host of problems compared to those who were not binge drinkers.
As well as being more likely to be alcoholics and have criminal records, they were 40% more likely to use illegal drugs, 40% more likely to suffer mental health problems and 60% more likely to be homeless.
They were also 40% more likely to have suffered accidents, almost four times as likely to have been excluded from school and 30% more likely to have gained no qualifications.
Binge drinking is defined as “two or more episodes of consuming four or more drinks in a row in the previous two weeks”, which might include rather a lot of 16 year olds these days, considering Alcohol Concern’s figures (PDF). In fact, in some parts of the country, alcohol is being used by children as young as eight.
It seems that children and young people are drinking more now than they did previously. Why is that? What can be done about it? Given this latest study, isn’t this a future health crisis in embryo?
Tags: alcohol
3 comments
September 6, 2007 at 8:12 pm
azulinebloo
8 year olds drinking is incredibly scary.
I remember reading some time ago about the expected increase in Korsakoff’s type dementia in the future due to our binge drinking culture.
For young people, drinking is a similar problem to smoking, it doesn’t affect them right away and they don’t worry about the future health problems.
Mind you, the term “binge drinking” quoted here, could label a lot of people I know as binge drinkers!
September 7, 2007 at 8:14 am
nephron
Did they demonstrate causation, or was it just a correlation?
Because when I was 16, the kids who binge-drank were the ones who already had problems.
September 10, 2007 at 9:03 am
beakie
The study seems not yet to appear in the online JECH, but here’s the press release from the Institute of Child Health: -
http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/press.....ease_00553
Issues of causation of mental illness are always controversial, but more and more evidence suggests a role for environmental and social factors, of which binge-drinking could be one.