Aims: Describing alcohol use by abuse type (e.g. psychological) and considering other factors (e.g. depression). Methods: The respondents were 4467 (2559 women, 57.3%) randomly selected elders (60-84 years) from seven European cities. The cross-sectional data were collected with scales covering various areas and examined with…

Aims: Young adults have the highest smoking rate of any age group in the United States. However, little is known about how young adults, including college students, access and pay for cigarettes--important information for guiding policies and prevention and intervention efforts. This study examined students' use of university debit cards, which…

Aim: This study examined the prevalence of medicine use for headache, stomachache, difficulties in getting to sleep, nervousness, depression and lack of energy among 15- to 16-year-old students; the relationship between medicine use and students' health status; and the relationship between medicine and nicotine, illegal drug, and alcohol use.…

Aim: This study was designed to investigate the link between appearance concerns and smoking in young men and women. Methods: A total of 244, 17-34-year-olds completed the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire Appearance Sub-Scales (MBSRQ-AS). Findings: Smokers scored significantly lower than non-smokers on appearance evaluation and…

Young people's participation in sexual risk behaviours is commonly linked with participation in a range of other risky behaviours, and in particular with substance use behaviours. This cross-sectional analysis of the sixth sweep of the Belfast Youth Development Study aimed to examine associations between substance use and sexual activity and…

Aims: We describe types of polydrug use among school students across Europe and explore differences between high, medium and low drug prevalence countries. Method: Analysis is based on survey data from over 70,000 15- to 16-year-old school students in 22 European countries. Polydrug use (defined as the use of two or more listed substances during…

Expenditures on gambling advertisements and promotions in North America have increased to unprecedented rates. Youth are particularly vulnerable to pro-gambling messages, and underage gambling has become a critical public health crisis the solution of which necessitates an environmental approach. In this paper, we examine an analogous situation,…

Aims: Tobacco retailers are in a unique position to implement policies that can influence sales and ultimately tobacco use, so the present survey explored retailers' tobacco policies, involvement and problems with law enforcement, and pessimism about whether youth will obtain tobacco products. Methods: 144 randomly selected tobacco retailers…

This study, conducted every 4 years since 1984, is aimed at monitoring alcohol, tobacco, tranquillizers and illegal drug-use trends among 15-year-olds from Warsaw. The self-report data are taken from a representative sample of students attending schools in three districts of Warsaw (sample size ranged from 1461 to 3918 in the different study…

The lifestyles of young people excluded from school have received much attention recently, particularly in relation to illicit drug use. Commentators have acknowledged that they constitute a high-risk group to social disaffection and substance abuse. This paper reports on a group of 48 young people living in Belfast aged 13-14 years who are…

Two hundred regular users of illegal drugs, aged 16-20, were recruited by peers in ten further education colleges across inner London. Data collected by self-completion questionnaire are presented on patterns of cigarette, alcohol, cannabis, stimulant and other drug use among White, Black and Asian ethnic groups. Multiple and logistic regression…

This paper presents the findings of a five-year study of year-11 pupils (15?16 years old), based on a sample drawn from seven schools in the North West of England. It examines: use, feelings about close friend's use and perceptions of the health-related risks of specific drugs. The findings conform with those examining other similar populations,…

Patients in treatment for substance-use disorders tend to smoke at higher rates than the general population. However, despite the fact such patients may be interested in smoking cessation and have been shown to be able to quit successfully without jeopardizing their sobriety, clinicians are often reluctant to advise their patients to stop smoking.…

A cross-sectional analysis of baseline data collected during a secondary prevention intervention study was conducted to describe patterns of drug use in a non-treatment sample of young drug users recruited in ten further-education colleges across inner London. Participants were 200 young people who were either weekly cannabis users and/or who had…

In this paper we report the results of research on the nature and extent of legal and illegal drug use among preteens and those factors associated with illegal drug use at this young age. The paper is based upon a survey of 2318 ten to twelve year olds in Glasgow and Newcastle. Overall around 30% of children reported having been exposed to illegal…