ESPAD Research Reveals 43 % of Georgian Schoolchildren Smoke, 85 % Have Drunk
A study by the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) of the situation in the 35 ESPAD countries in 2015 revealed that the habits of 14-15 year old Georgian schoolchildren to consume tobacco and alcohol are above rather than below the average rate.
The ESPAD Report 2015 features information on students’ experience of, and perceptions about a variety of substances including: tobacco, alcohol, illicit drugs, inhalants, pharmaceuticals and new psychoactive substances (NPS).
The results of the survey were presented at the National Center of Disease Control (NCDC) in Tbilisi on Tuesday.
Georgia joined the ESPAD project in 2015. The survey was conducted in Georgia in November 2015 and 168 public and 25 private schools were sampled and contacted. On the whole, 190 schools participated in the study. There were 2,477 completed questionnaires.
The study showed that 43 percent of Georgian schoolchildren consume tobacco: girls (30%) smoke less than boys (54%). 21 percent of children stated they had tried to smoke at the age of 13, while 4 percent said they started smoking at the age of 13 or earlier. 60 percent say it is very or quite easy to get cigarettes.
As for alcohol, 85 percent of Georgian schoolchildren (85% - boys and 83% - girls) claimed they had tasted alcohol at least once. 43 percent of them said they had had alcohol within 30 days of the survey, while 22 percent of the schoolchildren admitted they had experienced drunkenness at or by the age of 13.
The results revealed that wine is the most often consumed drink among 14-15 year old children, followed by beer. ESPAD says Georgian boys are more inclined to drink than girls.
11 percent of the student participants reported that they had used marijuana or hashish (cannabis) at least once during their lifetime. 8 percent of students had used marijuana or hashish (cannabis) within 12 months of the survey and 4 percent of students during the prior 30 days. Again, the prevalence in boys is much higher. The proportion of Georgian students who said they had tried marijuana or hashish at the age of 13 or younger was 2%.
The most prevalent drugs other than marijuana or hashish among Georgian students are tranquillizers or sedatives without a doctor’s prescription.
According to ESPAD, the most popular daily activities of survey participants are communicating with others on the Internet (64%); followed by streaming/downloading music, videos, films etc. (48%) and reading, surfing, searching for information etc. (36%). However, 14 percent of students reported gambling during the 12 months prior to the survey.
ESPAD is a collaborative effort of independent research teams in more than forty European countries and the largest cross-national research project on adolescent substance use in the world.
The overall aim with the project is to repeatedly collect comparable data on substance use among 15-16 year old students in as many European countries as possible.
The study was published in collaboration with the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) and is based on a 2015 survey in 35 European countries, including 24 EU Member States.
In general, the latest survey showed that teenage drinking and smoking in surveyed countries is down, but concerns posed new drugs and new addictive behaviors.
By Thea Morrison
Photo: ESPAD survey was presented at NCDC. Source: zeenews