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The HBSC is a World Health Organization (Europe) collaborative study. It runs on an academic four year cycle, and, in 2001/02, 32 individual countries participated. Principal investigators from all countries cooperate in relation to survey content, methodology and timing, and an international protocol is developed. Strict adherence to the protocol is required for inclusion in the international database and this has been achieved with the current study. The HBSC protocol requires minimum sample sizes of 1,536 in each of three age groups (11, 13 and 15) in order to approximate a 95% confidence interval of +/- 3%.

The sample was drawn from 176 schools and a total of 8,316 pupils participated. Only 5,712 responses, received by the end of the summer term, are included, to maintain comparability with data from 1998. The gender breakdown of the participants revealed that 44% were male and 56% female.

Questions focused on the topics of general health, smoking, alcohol, food and nutrition, exercise and accidents.

In the Republic of Ireland, sampling was conducted in order to be representative of the proportion of children in each of the eight health boards. The objective was to achieve a nationally representative sample of school aged children. The sampling frame consisted of primary and post-primary schools, lists of which were provided by the Department of Education.

A total of 351 schools were initially contacted across the 10 health boards. This table presents the response rates from both types of schools across health boards.

Regional response to the HBSC survey¹

Findings on alcohol

• 40% (31% in 1998) of children reported that they have never had an alcoholic drink.
• 25% of children reported having had an alcoholic drink in the last month, compared to 29% in 1998. The decrease observed was particularly marked for the 10-11 year group.
• Boys and girls were equally likely to be current drinkers (25%), whereas in 1998, boys were more likely to report current drinking (34%) than girls (24%).*
• 30% of children reported having been "really drunk", with little difference between boys (31%) and girls (30%). In 1998, boys (35%) were more likely to report having been drunk than girls (24%).
• 21% of boys (23% in 1998) and 20% of girls (14% in 1998) had been really drunk two or more times.
• Boys were more likely to drink beer (9%), followed by cider (7%) and spirits/liquor (6%). Girls were more likely to drink alcopops (8%) or spirits/liquor (7%). Among girls, there was a marked increase in the popularity of alcopops (from 3% in 1998 to 8% in 2002) and spirits (4% in 1998 to 7% in 2002).

*Current drinkers are defined here as those who report having had an alcoholic drink in the last month.

Further information on the Health Behaviour of School Children survey may be found at www.hbsc.org.

Reference

1. Health Promotion Unit, Department of Health and Children. The National Health and Lifestyle Surveys. Dublin: Centre for Health Promotion Studies, 2003. www.healthpromotion.ie/uploaded_docs/Slan03(PDF).pdf