El consumo riesgoso y dañino de alcohol y sus factores predictivos en adolescentes estudiantes del bachillerato

SUMMARY Background Alcohol is commonly used among adolescents in Mexico. In a representative survey of Mexico’s general population, 30% of the teenagers reported current drinking, whereas 8% incurred in binge drinking (5 or more drinks per occasion) at least once during the last year. In addition, 3% reported three or more alcohol dependence symptoms over the last 12 months. In this Mexican age group, alcohol consumption importantly contributes to the most frequent causes of morbidity and mortality (e.g. accidents, violence, homicides, suicide and risky behaviors). Data from a representative survey of adolescents attending middle and high school in Mexico City suggests that adolescents attending Mexico’s schools run a high risk for alcohol problems. In this study, prevalence of lifetime and current drinking, and of current binge drinking (5 or more drinks per occasion) were, respectively, 65.8%, 35.2%, and 23.8%. These rates are substantially higher than those described in teenagers from Mexico’s general population. Furthermore, although among Mexico’s general population the prevalence of drinking has traditionally been higher among male than female adolescents, no gender differences in prevalence of alcohol consumption have been reported among Mexican middle and high school students. This suggests that female adolescents in Mexico’s schools have become equally exposed to drinking as their male counterparts. Despite these trends, there is a paucity of studies examining drinking patterns and their respective correlates among Mexican adolescents attending post-elementary education. To our knowledge, in this population, there are no published prevalence estimates of Hazardous and Harmful Drinking (HHD). HHD is defined as a pattern of alcohol consumption conferring to the individual a greater risk for health problems, or frankly conducive to medical or psychological complications (e.g. accidents, victimization, violence, alcohol dependence, liver cirrhosis and/or other medical complications). The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), developed by the World Health Organization, is currently the only instrument specifically designed to identify HHD. Although the AUDIT was initially validated only among adult patients in primary care settings, this instrument has consistently shown to be valid and reliable in detecting alcohol problems in different populations, such as the adolescent population in many countries around the world. Given the public health implications of estimating the frequency of HHD among adolescents attending high school in Mexico, and given the importance of elucidating the variables influencing this problem, we decided to conduct the analysis presented here. To our knowledge, this is the first report published in the international literature on the prevalence of HHD among adolescents attending high school in a Latin American country.