The 1999 ESPAD report: alcohol and other drug use among students in 30 European countries.

The purpose of the ESPAD project is to collect comparable data on alcohol, tobacco and durg use among 15-16 year old students in as many European countries as possible. The longterm aim is toto study trends in alcohol and drug habits among students in Europe and to compare trends between countries. Every four years repeat studies are conducted. The report details study design and procedures, methodological considerations, and changes in the use of alcohol and other drugs from 1995 to 1999. The report then presents results relating to: tobacco use, alcohol use, illicit drugs, lifetime drug use and abstinence, attitudes, perceived cigarettes, and alcohol and drug use among friends. Key results are given for each country: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine and United Kingdom. Appendices include an overview of the sampling and data collection in participating countries, tables of available data, and the student questionnaire used

Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity and Associated Diet-Related Behaviours and Habits in a Representative Sample of Adolescents in Greece

Excessive body weight during adolescence represents a significant public health problem worldwide. Identifying factors associated with its development is crucial. We estimated the prevalence of overweight and obesity in a representative sample of 11, 13 and, 15-year-olds living in Greece and explored the association with diet-related behaviours and habits. Self-reported data on weight, height, diet-related behaviours and habits were used from 3816 students (1898 boys, 1918 girls) participants in the Greek arm of the international Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study during 2018. Overweight and obesity were defined using the 2007 WHO growth charts classification. Prevalence of overweight was 19.4% in the total sample, 24.1% for boys and 14.7% for girls, and prevalence of obesity was 5.3% in the total sample, 7.3% for boys and 3.4% for girls, respectively. In the total sample, overweight (including obesity) was positively associated with male gender, low family affluence, skipping breakfast, and being on a diet, and inversely associated with age and being physically active. Eating rarely with the family was positively associated with overweight only among boys and eating snacks/meals in front of screens only among girls. No association was noted for eating in fast-food restaurants, consuming vegetables, fruits, sweets, and sugar-sweetened beverages

ESPAD Report 2019: Results From European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs

The main purpose of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is to collect comparable data on substance use and other forms of risk behaviour among 15- to 16-year-old students in order to monitor trends within, as well as between, countries. Between 1995 and 2019, seven waves of data collection were conducted across 49 European countries. This report presents selected key results. The full set of data on which the current report is based, including all of the standard tables, is available online (http://www.espad.org). All tables can be downloaded in Excel format and used for further analysi

The ESPAD study: implications for prevention.

The European Schools Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) was concerned with the substance use, beliefs, attitudes and risk factors among over 50,000 16-year-olds in 26 European countries. Based on this data, the present paper focuses on critical issues in prevention and uses a country-level analysis with focus on the extent that contextual and cultural factors interact with factors influencing the use of alcohol and other drugs. The results indicate that: (i) an emphasis on risks and dangers may be a poor prevention strategy since many young people do not believe the widely accepted dangers of certain forms of substance use (e.g. cigarette smoking); (ii) misperception of norms in relation to substance use, that is, the belief that use of alcohol and other drugs is more common than it actually is, emerged in most countries with the exception of Nordic countries; (iii) the correlation between perceived access to substances and actual use depended on the substance involved; correlations were strongest for cannabis but low for alcohol; (iv) the measure of problem behaviour was used in the ESPAD study (truancy from school), is correlated with substance use in a way that is opposite to that predicted in problem behaviour theory; and (v) there were no indications that the potential restraining factors that were examined in this study (involvement in athletics and leisure) acted in a way that prevented people from experimenting with drugs. The results of this analysis suggests that far from our having identified a core set of universal influences that act to determine substance use, the importance of cultural and contextual factors have been underestimated as has the importance of the specific substance involved

ESPAD report 2003: alcohol and other drug use among students in 35 European countries.

A main purpose of the ESPAD project is to collect comparable data on alcohol, tobacco and drug use among 15–16 year old students in European countries. The studies are conducted as school surveys by researchers in each participating country, during the same period of time and with a common methodology. By adopting this ESPAD format, comprehensive and comparable data on alcohol, tobacco and drug use among European students are produced

Polydrug use among 15- to 16-year olds: Similarities and differences in Europe

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 the last 30 days) is compared across three country clusters based on drug prevalences by hierarchical cluster analysis. Affinity between substances is measured by pairwise associations and regression analysis was used to assess the differences in rate ratio across the country clusters. Results: A third of all school students had consumed two or more substances. The most common combinations were: alcohol and cigarettes, followed by alcohol or cigarettes combined with cannabis, followed by alcohol or cigarettes, cannabis and at least one other illegal drug. Pairwise associations show that cannabis and cocaine users are more likely to use illegal drugs than the general student populations but least likely to do so in countries with high prevalence levels (p < 0.0005). Conclusion: Consideration of country differences and objective measures for the concept of normalization could help to inform more holistic prevention initiatives that respond to country-specific contexts

Summary 2011 ESPAD report. Substance use among students in 36 European countries

The main purpose of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) is to collect comparable data on substance use among 15- to 16-year-old European students in order to monitor trends within as well as between countries. So far, five data-collection waves have been conducted in the framework of the project. The first study was carried out in 26 countries in 1995, while data collection in 2011 was performed in 37 countries. However, results for 2011 are available only for 36 countries, since the Isle of Man collected data but unfortunately did not have the possibility to deliver any results. This summary presents key results from the 2011 survey in the ESPAD countries as well as findings regarding the long-term trends. An initial section gives a short overview of the methodology

The 2007 ESPAD report. Substance use among students in 35 countries.

Use of illicit drugs among 15–16-year-old school students, appears to have stabilised or slightly fallen, according to the latest European study of this group published today by ESPAD. The report, which follows a 2007 survey conducted in 35 European countries, also reveals a decrease in last-month rates of cigarette smoking among school students. However, it sounds the alarm over clear rises in the group’s ‘heavy episodic drinking’, and the narrowing gender gap in this behaviour