Has the curve been broken? Trends between 1994 and 2006 in smoking and alcohol use among Greenlandic school children.

Office of Prevention, Ministry of Health, Nuuk, Greenland and Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg, Sweden. bvn@gh.gl

OBJECTIVES: To examine the development of smoking and alcohol use among Greenlandic schoolchildren and propose future preventive strategies. STUDY DESIGN: National survey in schoolchildren grade 6-11. METHODS: Analysis of data from the 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006 Health Behaviour in SchoolAged Children (HBSC) surveys in Greenland. Trends in the prevalence of the categories never having smoked, non-smoking, daily smoking, never tried alcohol, never been drunk and been drunk 4 times or more were calculated for children and youth aged 11, 13 and 15. In the data from 2006, the age trends for daily smoking and getting drunk 4 or more times, the assessment of risks attributed to substance use and the perception of how easy it was to access cigarettes and alcohol were analysed. RESULTS: A decrease in daily smokers and in children having been drunk 4 or more times and an increase in non-smokers and in children that had never been drunk was found in both genders among children and youth aged 13 and 15. Among youth aged 15 to 17 years, both cigarettes and alcohol were reported as easy to access. Risk assessment was different for alcohol and cigarettes, as well as between genders. CONCLUSIONS: A decline in the use of tobacco and alcohol among Greenlandic school children was ascertained. Due to the children's evaluation of easy access and risk regarding smoking and alcohol use, some general recommendations regarding future focus areas of prevention were proposed.

PMID: 19024800 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]