Young Europeans smoke and experience drunkenness later, according to the results of the Health behavior in school-aged children report (from the World Health Organization, reported by AFP.
This report which observes the lives of young people aged 11, 13 and 15 in 44 European and North American countries is published every 4 years. It reveals the risky behaviors of young adults and makes it possible to take a picture of the state of health of young people from 11 to 15 years old. In 2010, the finding revealed that 24% of young Europeans had smoked their first cigarette and that 16% of boys said they had been drunk before the age of 14.
In 2013/2014, the figures have changed and young people seem to have delayed the age of their first cigarette and their first drunkenness.
Indeed, they were only 17% to have lit a cigarette and 10% had been drunk before age 14. This report also reveals that boys are more likely to get drunk than girls except in the United Kingdom where the rate of young girls who touch before 15 years old isalcohol is high.
While socio-economic and environmental factors play a role in good dietary rules, physical activity or mental health which are linked to high living standards of families, they do not seem to be correlated with the consumption of tobacco or alcohol.
Girls worse off than boys
In 2014, adolescents ate a more balanced diet than in 2010 and they exercise more. Yet half of the young girls said they felt uncomfortable and suffered from ailments on a regular basis.
“Health behaviors, like the social habits acquired during the second decade of life, have a lasting effect that extends into adulthood and affects a lifetime,” notes Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, director WHO Regional for Europe.
“Due to the multiplicity of behaviors, it is necessary to no longer treat adolescents as a” homogeneous group “but to provide a whole range of interventions reflecting this diversity”, she concludes.
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