Binge drinking and frequent or heavy drinking among adolescents: prevalence and associated factors

To analyze the sociodemographic, school, and family factors associated with the patterns of binge drinking and frequent or heavy drinking among adolescents.

This was a cross-sectional study, nested in a randomized controlled trial, of 6285 seventh and eighth grade adolescent students from Brazilian public schools. The associations between binge drinking (consumption of five or more doses of alcohol on a single occasion) in the last 12 months and frequent or heavy drinking (alcohol consumption on six or more days) in the last month and the several factors were analyzed through weighted logistic regression.

16.5% of the students reported binge drinking in the year before the interview and 2.2% reported frequent/heavy drinking in the previous month. The factors associated with binge drinking were cigarette smoking (OR=6.7, 95% CI=3.96; 11.23), use of marijuana (OR=2.2, 95% CI=1.17; 4.31), use of inhalant drugs (OR=3.0, 95% CI=1.98; 4.43), exposure to a drunk relative (OR=2.1, 95% C=1.67; 2.53), practice of bullying (OR=1.8, 95% CI=1.47; 2.17), verbal aggression (OR=1.7, 95%CI=1.40; 2.14), and intermediate/low school grades (OR=1.7, 95% CI=1.35; 2.20). The factors associated with frequent/heavy drinking were cigarette smoking (OR=2.5, 95% CI=1.16; 5.22), use of marijuana (OR=3.2, 95% CI=1.32; 7.72), and physical aggression (OR=2.2, 95% CI=1.36; 3.50).

The analyzed outcomes showed an association between the risk consumption of alcohol in early adolescence and low academic performance, involvement with other drugs, aggressiveness, and witnessing episodes of a family member's drunkenness. Considering the impact on public health of the damages caused by alcohol consumption during adolescence, these factors that showed such association should be considered in the development of preventive interventions.