Alcohol, binge drinking and associated mental health problems in young urban Chileans

OBJECTIVE: To explore the link between alcohol use, binge drinking and mental health problems in a representative sample of adolescent and young adult Chileans. METHODS: Age and sex-adjusted Odds Ratios (OR) for four mental wellbeing measures were estimated with separate conditional logistic regression models for adolescents aged 15-20 years, and young adults aged 21-25 years, using population-based estimates of alcohol use prevalence rates from the Chilean National Health Survey 2010. RESULTS: Sixty five per cent of adolescents and 85% of young adults reported drinking alcohol in the last year and of those 83% per cent of adolescents and 86% of young adults reported binge drinking in the previous month. Adolescents who reported binging alcohol were also more likely, compared to young adults, to report being always or almost always depressed (OR 12.97 [95% CI, 1.86-19.54]) or to feel very anxious in the last month (OR 9.37 [1.77-19.54]). Adolescent females were more likely to report poor life satisfaction in the previous year than adolescent males (OR 8.50 [1.61-15.78]), feel always or almost always depressed (OR 3.41 [1.25-9.58]). Being female was also associated with a self-reported diagnosis of depression for both age groups (adolescents, OR 4.74 [1.49-15.08] and young adults, OR 4.08 [1.65-10.05]). CONCLUSION: Young people in Chile self-report a high prevalence of alcohol use, binge drinking and associated mental health problems. The harms associated with alcohol consumption need to be highlighted through evidence-based prevention programs. Health and education systems need to be strengthened to screen and support young people. Focussing on policy initiatives to limit beverage companies targeting alcohol to young people will also be needed

Acceptance of breaded fish (Engraulis anchoita) in school meals in extreme southern Brazil

The objective of this study was to evaluate the acceptance of breaded fish (Engraulis anchoita) by public school students aged 5–18 (n=830) from two cities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. First, by using multivariate analyses, the authors sought to assess the effect of the variables sex, city, and age on the acceptance of breaded fish. The second objective was to develop a predictive model that was applicable to different levels of acceptance. The results showed that the significant variable for the acceptance of breaded fish was age. According to the linear model and the descriptive statistics, an inverse relationship exists between the acceptance of breaded fish in school meals and the age of the children, possibly a consequence of the children being more critical in their food preference with the rising age, making the insertion of a new food that is not part of their eating behaviour more difficult