In 2022, the HRB in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin (TCD) began work analysing a longitudinal study of substance use among young people. HRB Research Officer Dr Deirdre Mongan provides an overview of the study and its progress to date.

Substance use is one of the most prominent health and social concerns in respect of young people. Adolescence is the peak period during which people first engage in alcohol and/or drug use. Among 10–24-year-olds, alcohol is the second leading risk factor for disease and injury and drug use is the sixth. Initiation of substance use during this critical period can disrupt significant life transitions and has been linked to detrimental short- and long-term health as well as adverse social consequences.

National drugs strategy
In light of this, the Department of Health – under the national drugs strategy – tasked the HRB with analysing GUI data to gain insights into substance use behaviours among young people. Trinity College’s Population Health Medicine division, led by Professor Noel McCarthy, was successful in the tender issued by the HRB to develop statistical methodologies and analyse and report on data collected on substance use by children and young people from the Growing Up in Ireland longitudinal study...

[Continue to read the post on the HRB website]

[See also, Webinar recording: Growing up in Ireland: substance use and childhood adversity.]