THE LATEST Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey is something of a curate’s egg. A welcome reduction in drinking and smoking among 9 to 18-year-olds in the Republic must be set against continuing poor levels of physical activity and an increase in the number of children who say they go to bed hungry.
Conducted every four years by the department of health promotion at the National University of Ireland, Galway in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, just over 16,000 children from 256 schools participated in the 2010 survey.
In terms of alcohol, some 54 per cent of 9 to 18-year-olds reported that they had never had a drink. One fifth reported drinking alcohol in the past month, a welcome decrease from the last survey in 2006. However, some 28 per cent of those surveyed had consumed an amount of alcohol that made them “really drunk”, indicating how binge drinking continues at worrying levels.
The adolescent brain deals with alcohol differently from the adult brain, making it more vulnerable to memory loss and impairment as a result of alcohol binges. Binge drinking among 15 to 16-year-olds in Ireland is the third highest in Europe, with teenagers spending an average of €20 a week on alcohol. It remains a significant health and social challenge for the adults of tomorrow.
When asked if they had gone to school or to bed hungry because there was not enough food at home, 21 per cent said they had, compared to 17 per cent of children in the last survey. Younger children and children from lower social class groups were significantly more likely to have gone hungry than older children and those from other social class groups. With a deepening economic crisis since the data was gathered, this worrying trend has almost certainly continued.
There was a welcome reduction in smoking rates with the number of older girls who said they had ever smoked dropping from 57 per cent in 2006 to 47 per cent in 2010. And cannabis abuse halved in the same four-year period. But lack of exercise continues to be a problem, with just half of children reporting they had exercised four or more times a week; in the context of significant rates of childhood obesity this represents a major public health challenge.
The HBSC report includes some encouraging trends. But much remains to be done by the relevant Ministers to protect children’s health and wellbeing.