The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study is a cross-national research study conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe and runs on a four-year cycle. In 2014, Ireland participated for the fifth time in the HBSC study (www.nuigalway.ie/hbsc). The overall aims of the HBSC study are to gain new insight into, and increase our understanding of young people’s health and well-being, health behaviours and their social context. HBSC collects data on key indicators of health, health attitudes, and health behaviours, as well as the context of health for young people. The study is a school-based survey with information collected from students through self-completion questionnaires in classrooms. HBSC Ireland 2014 was funded by the Department of Health.

The most recent HBSC Ireland study was conducted in 2014 and included 13,611 school-children from 3rd class in primary school to 5th year in post-primary school. Collectively, 230 primary and post-primary schools across Ireland participated in this study. The methods employed comply with the International HBSC protocol and are detailed in the national report from the 2014 survey see http://www.nuigalway.ie/hbsc/hbsc_2014.html.

This short report presents a brief analysis of alcohol and cannabis intake among Irish school-children, aged 13-17, across the country broken down by age and gender. Overall, data from 7,320 school-children aged 13-17 were analysed.