Home > Your drinking, their drinking…

[Healthpromotion.ie] Your drinking, their drinking…. (16 Mar 2010)

External website: http://www.healthpromotion.ie/news/611/

The Health Service Executive wishes everyone a happy and healthy St Patrick’s Day and encourages us all individually and as families to take the opportunity to decide how we are going to celebrate and enjoy our national holiday. Let’s take this opportunity to remind ourselves that our children learn important messages and develop their attitudes to alcohol based on the amount of adult/family time that is given to drinking alcohol and the way in which it is consumed.

Parents are the most important influence on their children and what parents say and do will have a major effect on young people’s relationship with alcohol.Dr Bobby Smyth, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with the Health Service Executive said that ‘as parents, we consistently underestimate how much our children are drinking. We also tend to underestimate the strength of our influence on our children's drinking. National and international research indicates that parental influences are much more important than peer influences. We need to talk to our children about alcohol and make every effort to delay their initiation into the world of alcohol use for as long as possible.’

The recent European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs (ESPAD 2009) a study of drinking among European 15 – 16 year olds found that Irish students get intoxicated more often that their European counterparts about half of the students (47%) reported having been drunk during the past 12 months which was the highest average intoxication scores among the 35 countries surveyed. (Hibell et al, 2009).  Commenting on this Joe Barry, Professor of Population Health Medicine, Trinity College said that ‘the brain does not fully mature until a person reaches their early 20’s. Regular drinking of alcohol during the teenage years has a negative impact on brain development.  There is also increasing evidence that it results in long term and permanent changes to short-term and long-term thinking skills, and in addition may change the brain in ways that can lead to future alcohol dependence.’

Research shows that young people who start drinking before the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence later in life which clearly provides more reasons than ever before for parents and other adults to be concerned about the effects of underage drinking on children, and to take steps to prevent and to reduce underage drinking.

Sometimes we forget that from an early age, our children will be aware of how we as adults and as families celebrate important occasions. Let’s keep this in mind this St Patrick’s Day by us all:

  • Not drinking to intoxication;
  • Not drinking and driving;
  • Sometimes refusing a drink when offered;
  • Not always needing to use alcohol to celebrate occasions, and
  • Not declaring, “I need a drink!” when you’re dealing with stressful times.

Have a Happy and Healthy St Patrick’s Day from the HSE.

'Straight Talk’ the HSE’s information leaflet for parents on teenage drinking is available from http://www.healthpromotion.ie/ or through the HSE’s Infoline at 1850 24 1850.

ENDS
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Valerie Kavanagh
National Press Office, HSE
t: 01 6352840
e: press@hse.ie

References:

European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs (ESPAD 2009)

Hibell B, Guttormsson U, Ahlstrom S, Balakireva O, Bjarnason T, Kokkevi A, Kraus L:  The 2007 ESPAD Report: Substance use among students in 35 European countries. Stockholm, The Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs 2009.

The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking.’ US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General, 2007.

Grant, B.F., and Dawson, D.A. Age at onset of drug use and its association with DSMIV drug abuse and dependence: Results from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey. Journal of Substance Abuse 10:163–173, 1998.

Hingson, R.; Heeren, T.; Jamanka, A.; et al. Age of drinking onset and unintentional injury involvement after drinking. JAMA 284:1527–1533, 2000.

Hingson, R.; Heeren, T.; Levenson, S.; et al. Age of drinking onset, driving after drinking, and involvement in alcohol related motor vehicle crashes. Accident Analysis and Prevention 34:85–92, 2002.

Hingson, R.; Heeren, T.; Winter, M.; et al. Magnitude of alcohol related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students age 1824: Changes from 1998 to 2001. Annual Review of Public Health 26:259– 279, 2005.

Hingson, R.; Heeren, T.; and Zakocs, R. Age of drinking onset and involvement in physical fights after drinking. Pediatrics 108:872–877, 2001.

Hingson, R., and Kenkel, D. Social health and economic consequences of underage drinking. In: National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, Bonnie, R.J., and O’Connell, M.E., eds. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2004. pp. 351–382.

Repository Staff Only: item control page